City of Orlando wants every resident to have CPR training

ORLANDO, Fla. — There is an effort under way to get every single person in Orlando trained to do CPR.

WFTV has learned most city employees have already finished their training.

"You're more likely to survive a heart attack in Orlando than just about anywhere else," Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said during his most recent State of the City address.

In the address Dyer vowed to make Orlando even safer, by training every city employee to perform CPR.

It's the most basic CPR, hands-only, and officials said it can be learned in 30 minutes.

Ninety percent of the city's 3,000 employees have now had that training, and by April the entire city workforce will be trained, said city officials.

"Make no mistake, this is an unprecedented effort," said Dyer.

By the summer, the Orlando Fire Department will develop plans to expand CPR training with a goal of teaching every person in Orlando within five years.

"I think it would be very beneficial for our community if people started learning CPR, the basics of CPR," said an Orlando resident.

"It's easy. It's very easy," said a woman at Lake Eola Tuesday.

"So you would know what to do if I dropped?" Channel 9 reporter Mark Joyella asked.

"Yeah, I would," she said.

City workers are not obligated to perform CPR, but they are protected, the city says, from liability under the Good Samaritan Law.

By using city staff to train employees, the CPR training that's been done so far has been cost-free, beyond the time invested to give everyone the 30-minute class.

WFTV