Matthew Mangine and Rep. Andy Barr are tied together by unimaginable loss and one singular, horrible date: June 16, 2020.
That’s the day Mangine, a dad from northern Kentucky, lost his 16-year-old son, who collapsed at a soccer practice and later died from a cardiac event. It’s also the day Barr’s wife, Carol, collapsed on a Zoom call and later died, also from a cardiac event. She was 39.
Last month, Mangine went to Barr’s Washington, D.C., office and asked him to back legislation that would increase access to automated external defibrillators in schools. He argued a defibrillator could have saved his boy’s life. When he mentioned the day of his son’s death, Barr looked stunned.
