VIDEO: Josiah Farley had big dreams to play professional basketball one day. Those dreams almost died with him. He was 17 years old in 2023, and he was on the court playing the sport he loved when he nearly lost his life to cardiac arrest. “They said I fell back, passed out, had a convulsion, and went into cardiac arrest, and I was dead for over 22 minutes,” Josiah said. “It felt like a dream, and I was a little out of my mind.” Two people helped Josiah by administering CPR and using an automated external defibrillator, or AED. Starting July 1, HB874 went into effect in Georgia. The law requires K-12 public schools to have at least one functional AED along with an emergency action plan. It also requires a trained internal response team in CPR and AED use, specific locations for the resources, maintenance and testing of AEDs, a supervising physician to review the plans, and two annual drills per school year.
