The Garland Fire Department is teaching all city employees how to perform chest compression CPR.
Nearly 2,000 employees will be trained in 10-minute sessions the department calls "10 to Life" -- 10 minutes to learn CPR to save a life.
"It's frustrating for us to go to calls when there's people there and they are bystanders and nobody is performing CPR because we know what difference it can make on the patient," Assistant Fire Chief Todd Peele said.
The CPR focuses on chest compressions, rather than mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
"If bystander CPR is performed, your chances of surviving triples," Peele said.
Peel said chest compression CPR during cardiac arrest helps oxygen circulate in the body for four to five minutes, which helps when assistance is on the way.
"If you'll only do compression-only CPR for that four to five minutes that it takes for EMS to get there, that's what makes the big difference," he said.
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The fire department hopes to train all city departments by the end of the year.
Garland residents can also learn the technique by checking out CPR training kits at all libraries.
"If we can just save one life, that's great," said Claire Bausch, director of Garland Libraries.
Right now, 70 kits can be checked out for a week, and Bausch said she hopes to get more out.
"If any one of us or our friends or our spouse or our other family members or our neighbors has cardiac arrest, it increases the odds that somebody has had that training," she said.
