Cardiac Arrest Survival Act of 2025
The Cardiac Arrest Survival Act of 2025 would create a nationwide, uniform set of civil liability protections for the emergency use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The bill amends the Public Health Service Act to provide immunity from civil liability for three categories: (1) bystanders or others who use or attempt to use an AED during a perceived medical emergency (as long as they are not the AED’s owner-acquirer), (2) premises owners, lessees, or managers of places where an AED is used or taken from, and (3) the owner-acquirer of an AED, unless a specific maintenance failure caused the harm. The goal is to reduce liability concerns that hinder AED deployment across states and thereby improve survival from cardiac arrest. The protections apply even if the user had no training or visible signage, but there are explicit exceptions for willful or gross misconduct, licensed health professionals acting within their scope, and certain health-care entity situations. The act also preempts conflicting state laws to the extent it provides immunity, and it includes detailed definitions to guide application.
Key Points
- 1Establishes nationwide Good Samaritan-like protections for AED use in perceived medical emergencies, covering users who are not the AED owner-acquirer.
- 2Extends immunity to premises owners/lessees/managers of locations where an AED is used or taken for use.
- 3Extends immunity to owner-acquirers of AEDs, with an important exception: immunity does not apply if the owner-acquirer failed to maintain the device according to manufacturer guidelines and that failure proximately caused harm.
- 4Sets out carve-outs to immunity: willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence, reckless conduct, or conscious indifference; licensed health professionals using the AED within their license/scope; health-care facilities’ employees acting within their employment scope; and owner-acquirers who leased the AED to a health-care entity with harm caused by an employee or agent within that entity’s scope.
- 5Preempts conflicting State laws to create a uniform federal baseline for civil liability related to AED use, while clarifying federal jurisdiction rules and that the act does not create a federal cause of action or mandate AED placement.