The American Heart Association picked Fort Worth as one of three cities for a project that aims to improve the survival rate of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital.
The organization said schools, first responders, and the medical community in Tarrant County have shown they work well together and can build a "culture change" to improve the survival rate.
First responders, education leaders, and members of the American Heart Association met in Fort Worth this week to look at options to train more people to give hands-only CPR.
Matt Zavadsky, formerly with the ambulance provider MedStar and now a healthcare consultant, said MedStar crews would take training kits with them to events so people could walk up to an ambulance and learn hands-only CPR.
"We'd like to see that continue, we'd like to see it expand," he said.
Zavadsky said MedStar has also worked with 911 dispatchers to give directions on how to administer chest compressions over the phone. He said dispatchers go through monthly training to ensure they have the skills needed.
"The time it takes from identification of a potential cardiac arrest on a 911 call to the initiation of chest compressions has dramatically improved," he said.
The American Heart Association said it hoped to improve the rate of bystanders able to give CPR in an emergency. The group's Corrie Harris said businesses like Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway have also started projects to teach employees hands-only CPR.
"It's amazing," she said. "Their safety protocols are at a different level."
The American Heart Association's Hatice Dalton said Fort Worth ISD was one of the first large districts in the area to offer students CPR training and has an instructor and equipment available for kids who want to learn.
"First of all, you guys are trailblazers, so congrats on that," she said. "I can't imagine any parent saying, 'No, I don't want my kid to learn a lifesaving protocol.'"
HEB ISD Superintendent Joe Harrington said that the district has grown to 23,000 students but initially had funding for just eight AED kits for the entire district. He said the district has worked with the American Heart Association and now has 36 kits with a goal of reaching 63 to keep in buildings and athletic facilities.
"Those are some of the things and ideas we're working on to create, not just one district of life-savers, but a whole region," he said.
Harrington said HEB ISD also has school nurses working with kids. He said the district is also bringing kits and training dummies to school bands and athletic departments to give students more opportunities for training.
"The more times they touch the dummies, the more opportunity, the more confidence they're going to have," he said.
Harrington says the district is also working with hospitals that can send interns to help with training in addition to local police and fire. He said they want all students to know how to handle an emergency.
"We've got to make sure we've got kids who are confident to do something. Even if that confidence is calling 911, you just did something," he said. "You didn't put it on Instagram, you just did something to help somebody. We know they're putting it on Instagram, we just need them to call 911 first."
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