34,000 Orange County students hope to break CPR record

ORLANDO, Fla. – Thirty-four thousand students across Orange County will learn lifesaving, hands-only CPR and AED training.

The group hopes to beat a record of 25,000 students, set last year, and also celebrate World Heart Day, which is Saturday.

Trainers with the Orlando Fire Department, city leaders and other medical professionals worked alongside students at Boone High School and other area schools Friday morning, teaching them the basic skills to the beat of "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees. Officials say the beat to the song is perfect timing for heart compressions.

Each year, more than 300,000 people suffer from cardiac arrest, many of them fatal. Program coordinator and retired Orlando Fire Chief Dan Fleming said performing hands-only CPR could dramatically increase chances of survival.

"A person has collapsed, they have literally died, and if somebody starts doing hands-only CPR, you give them a 70 percent chance of survival over if I just sat there, called 911 and just waited," Fleming said. 

Orlando Fire Department’s Take Heart program has trained more than 130,000 citizens over the past five years.