McKinney launches plan to place 400 AEDs in homes to boost cardiac arrest survival rates

The City of McKinney has an ambitious plan to put automated electronic defibrillators in the hands of more than 400 residents. It's part of an effort improve heart attack survival rates, and the city says so far it's working.

A cardiac arrest was about the last thing Jody de St. Germain worried about as a healthy 64-year-old who was active and rode his bike as much as 40 miles a day. 

But last April, de St. Germain was inside the McKinney bike shop where he worked when he suffered a severe electric shock while handling a light fixture, causing his heart to stop beating. 

"I was on a ladder," de St. Germain said. "Apparently. I fell off the ladder and one of my coworkers, Victoria, heard the sound where I was at, so she came running in. And at that time, I was out."

His coworker applied CPR almost immediately. That, along with a fast response by McKinney paramedics, literally brought de St. Germain back to life. 

He's one of 17 success stories since the McKinney Fire Department launched an initiative to improve cardiac arrest survival rates in the city from 10% up to 47% in just two years. 

"We basically looked at a lot of data that we had, and we weren't doing as well as we wanted to for saving people from cardiac arrest," said McKinney Fire Chief Paul Dow.

Dow now wants McKinney to become one of the nation's first "4-minute cities" where an automated electronic defibrillator is never more than 4 minutes away.  

The chief already has AED's placed in all police and fire vehicles. 

He's looking to acquire 400 more that can be placed in the homes of trained McKinney residents, called the Neighborhood Heroes campaign. 

"We're working with partners to get the donations," said Dow. "And then of course, we want to make sure that people are trained, they're vetted, and then we can take this AED and put it in your hands, and we want you to go home with it and be prepared."