-David Crowder, WRGA News-
New legislation passed by the Georgia General Assembly requires owners of Automated External Defibrillators to register their device locations with 911.
The Mason Sells Act is named for a Mercer University student who died in 2024.
“He was playing during a soccer game there on campus when he suffered a cardiac arrest,” said Chris Fincher with Floyd County Emergency Management. “Nobody knew where the closest AED was. They knew they had one on campus, but nobody knew where it was, if it was locked, or anything like that.”
Marty Hardin, a State Senator from Tyrone, introduced the legislation to encourage private entities, educational institutions, and that sort of thing to share the information with 911.
“So that whenever someone calls 911, and says their friend is having a heart attack, 911 can look at the location notes, and readily know where the AED might be,” Fincher added.
EMA will be working with 911 to create an information repository.
“We are going to be going out in sort of a campaign to identify these locations,” Fincher said. “We’re looking at gyms, churches, and obviously, our schools. Our government locations already have AEDs, and it’s my understanding that there are also some at the parks and the trails. We are also looking at transportation hubs, hotels and resorts, recreation centers, senior living and care facilities, obviously, but also shopping centers. Dental facilities are required to have an AED. Anybody that basically helps you go under has to have an AED on-site.”
Fincher said the effort is not up and running yet, but he wanted to give these entities a heads-up.
The goal of the legislation is to have AED’s within just a three-minute walk.
