42 U.S.C. § 238q — Liability regarding emergency use of automated external defibrillators

(a) Good Samaritan protections regarding AEDs: Except as described in (b), anyone who uses or tries to use an automated external defibrillator device on someone experiencing what looks like a medical emergency is immune from civil liability for any harm the device causes. Whoever acquired the device is also immune, unless the harm came from the acquirer's failure to: notify local emergency responders about the device's most recent placement within a reasonable time; properly maintain and test the device; or train the employee or agent who used it - unless that person was not someone who would reasonably be expected to use it, or there was not reasonably enough time to train them before the harm occurred. (b) Inapplicability of immunity: This immunity does not protect a person if: the harm was caused by willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence, reckless misconduct, or a conscious, flagrant indifference to the victim's rights or safety; the person is a licensed or certified health professional who used the device while acting within their license or certification and within their job; the person is a hospital, clinic, or similar entity providing direct patient care, and the harm was caused by an employee or agent acting within their job; or the person leased the device to a health care entity, or otherwise provided it for pay without selling it, and the harm was caused by an employee or agent of that entity acting within their job. (c) Rules of construction: This section does not create any new right to sue, and does not require any building to have a defibrillator. It overrides a state's law only where that state has no statute or regulation giving the same class of people similar civil immunity for using these devices in emergencies. It does not waive any liability protection federal officers or employees already have under section 233 of this title, the Federal Tort Claims Act provisions in title 28, or comparable federal benefit programs. This immunity applies to civil claims arising under federal law the same way it applies to state-law claims, and, in a federal area located inside a state where state law otherwise applies by default, it replaces the state law that would apply there. (d) Federal jurisdiction: For a civil case arising under state law, the courts of the state involved - not federal courts - have jurisdiction to apply this section. (e) Definitions: "Perceived medical emergency" means circumstances where a reasonable person would believe someone is experiencing a life-threatening heart or lung condition needing an immediate medical response. "Automated external defibrillator device" means a defibrillator that is legally marketed under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, can recognize ventricular fibrillation on its own, can decide on its own whether to shock the patient, can deliver that shock, and, if it can also run in manual mode, is set to automated mode. "Harm" includes physical, nonphysical, economic, and noneconomic losses. "Economic loss" means pecuniary losses like lost earnings or job benefits, medical expenses, replacement-service costs, death-related losses, burial costs, and lost business or job opportunities, to the extent state law allows recovery for them. "Noneconomic losses" means things like pain and suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, mental anguish, disfigurement, lost enjoyment of life, lost companionship, loss of consortium, injury to reputation, and similar nonpecuniary losses.