One group wants Palm Beach County to have more residents trained in CPR than any other county in the country.
The initiative started with a hands-on training today in suburban Boynton Beach.
Paramedics have teamed up with Community Assistance and Benefit Corporation (CAB Corp) to teach CPR at different communities in Palm Beach County.
Medical experts say the sooner a person having a heart attack gets CPR, the more likely they are to survive.
In Palm Peach County, paramedics respond to about 1,200 cardiac arrests every year. They say a bystander performs CPR on the victim in only about 20% of the cases.
They hope initiatives like this will get that percentage higher, resulting in more lives saved.
CAB Corp, a non-profit dedicated to helping the Palm Beach County fire department, purchased mannequins paramedics use to teach people the proper CPR technique.
"It's so simple, it makes it much easier for even someone like myself, or people older than me, to help try to save lives of their fellow residents," explains Lance Berkowitz, from CAB Corp.
Paramedics say CPR no longer includes mouth-to-mouth. It focuses on chest compressions.
They say you should begin chest compressions when a person isn't responding. They say it won't hurt a person to get chest compressions when they're not having a heart attack.
Click here, for a step-by-step guide on how to perform CPR.
