If your heart stopped in McKinney, Texas two years ago, you had a 10% chance of surviving — the same grim odds as most American cities. Today, that number has skyrocketed to 47%, well above the national average of 30% and closing in on Seattle's leading rate of 50%.
The transformation began when Fire Battalion Chief Ben Jones sent a team to train at the Resuscitation Academy in Seattle in late 2024. They returned with a plan to replicate key components of their 'chain of survival': rapid recognition, immediate CPR, fast AED access, and quick transport.
Every minute a cardiac arrest victim waits for care cuts survival by 10%. Knowing this, McKinney installed more than 80 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in every patrol, traffic, and neighborhood police vehicle. A friendly competition between fire and police teams fueled a life-saving culture shift.
In the past year alone, nine McKinney residents have been revived in time thanks to the program.
Now the city is going even further. Through a new 'Neighborhood Heroes' campaign, McKinney will deploy 200 AEDs across residential neighborhoods, empowering ordinary citizens to serve as first responders during cardiac emergencies.
The initiative will make McKinney one of the nation's first '4-Minute Cities' — where an AED is never more than four minutes away from any cardiac event.
'This is a model that every city in America could replicate,' said officials involved in the program. The partnership between McKinney's fire and police departments proves that coordinated, community-driven approaches to emergency medicine can dramatically save lives.
With the national average cardiac arrest survival rate sitting at just 30%, McKinney's success story offers a blueprint for cities everywhere.