McKinney’s race to defibrillate: Fire department officials aim to distribute 400 more AEDs over 5 years

Cardiac arrest survival rates in McKinney have increased more than 35 percentage points since 2023 when the McKinney Fire Department set a goal to improve response times.

Those rates have increased by partnering with the McKinney Police Department in response to cardiac arrests, and placing automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, in publicly accessible facilities across the city, officials said. While McKinney has already improved survival rates above the national average of 10%, fire department leaders are still looking for ways to improve.

A community-based approach called the Neighborhood Heroes program could be the answer, officials say. The program equips trained citizens with AEDs, which enables them to respond to cardiac arrests within a half-mile radius of their position.

“If we can get that call taker or a bystander to get on the chest and do CPR right away, and we can get an AED to them within those first four minutes, then their chance of survival skyrockets to well above 60%,” Battalion Chief Ben Jones said.

The big picture

The McKinney Fire Department intends to place more than 400 AEDs in the hands of trained citizens over the next five years. The network of community responders is part of McKinney’s path to becoming a “Four-Minute City.”

“[The designation] basically means that no matter where you’re at within city limits, you’re only four minutes away from an AED,” said Dr. Mark Maynard, an emergency medicine doctor for the Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in McKinney and the fire department’s medical director.

When a person experiences cardiac arrest, they lose a 10% chance of survivability for every minute that they are not treated, he said.

“You’ve got about a 10-minute window of opportunity for when that patient goes down until either help arrives with compressions or [an] AED,” he said. “If they don’t, that patient has a really dismal prognosis.”

Maynard compared the situation to a house that’s caught on fire in the kitchen that somebody’s waited too long to address.

“You could have the best firefighting equipment: hoses, ladders, trucks,” he said. “None of it makes any difference because all you’ve got is ashes.”

Baylor Scott & White Health is donating $450,000 to the city that will be used to acquire 150 more AEDs from California-based medical company Avive, Jones said. McKinney City Council members approved the donation and purchase during a June 2 meeting.

McKinney City Manager Paul Grimes said the acquisition is a “significant step” toward becoming a “true ‘Four-Minute City.’”

“This helps bring lifesaving care closer to residents and improves the chances of survival during cardiac emergencies,” he said in an email.

How it works

Since 2023, the McKinney Fire Department has doubled the number of AEDs in McKinney and cut their dispatch time in half. The city has added AEDs to publicly accessible places like parks, recreation centers and public libraries. The department has also placed 80 AEDs in police vehicles, Jones said.

The fire department is able to track the location of each AED within the community. Citizens who are trained through the Neighborhood Heroes program receive their own device that can be used to respond to cardiac arrests.

If a cardiac arrest is reported within a mile of that person’s location, they receive a notification through a smartphone app, Jones said. Citizens have flexibility to accept or decline a call through the app, he said.

AEDs guide trained citizens through the process of placing pads, performing CPR and delivering shocks through the placed pads, Jones said.

The McKinney Fire Department has already distributed 12 AEDs to participating citizens after they were trained through the Neighborhood Heroes program, according to officials.

“Within 16 days, we had our first Neighborhood Hero respond to a cardiac arrest,” Jones said. “It was right down the street from where she lived.”

The citizen was able to respond before the fire department, started CPR and started the AED shock process as crews were arriving, he said.

Jenny Eyer, vice president of community impact for the American Heart Association, said the “Four-Minute City” initiative could help increase cardiac arrest survival rates across the North Texas area if other cities follow suit.

Carrollton is the only other city that’s currently pursuing the initiative, she said. Fort Worth is pursuing a similar effort by placing AEDs within police vehicles. The American Heart Association encourages partnerships between companies and communities to increase awareness and funding around cardiac arrest, she said.

“We truly believe we can increase survivability everywhere,” Eyer said.

In 2025, first responders in McKinney saved 17 people from cardiac arrest. Jones said that before this initiative, he had never seen one person saved during his 20-year career.

“That’s pretty impressive,” Jones said. “That tells me that the science is proving that the way we were doing cardiac arrests was not accurate and the way we’re doing it now is actually making a difference in peoples’ lives.”

Get involved

The McKinney Fire Department offers training opportunities for community members interested in learning how to perform CPR and use an AED. Here’s how to get involved:

• Sign up online for the McKinney Fire Department’s “Ready to React” class
  • Participants will learn how to perform hands-only CPR training, how to use an AED and how to stop severe bleeding at the department’s administration building.
• Apply to be a Neighborhood Hero
  • Participants must be 18 years or older. The online application includes questions about CPR training and physical abilities. Learn more at www.mckinneyfire.org/hero.
• Complete an in-person evaluation
  • Officials will review CPR and AED training again, and teach volunteers how to respond safely to a cardiac arrest call and how to transition care back to paramedics when they arrive on the scene.
• Collect equipment and begin service
  • Once training and evaluation are complete, the fire department issues an official badge and AED as part of the Neighborhood Heroes program.