NASHUA – During its observance of "National Emergency Medical Services Week," American Medical Response, a local ambulance service, will provide free compression-only CPR lessons to area residents.

The lessons will be provided on Wednesday, from 10 a.m-2 p.m., in the Nashua Senior Center Health room. Participants can expect to learn a potentially life-saving skill as part of AMR’s CPR Challenge, an initiative aimed at helping bystanders know what to do if they encounter a cardiac arrest victim.

"Compression-only CPR allows bystanders to keep life-saving blood flowing through a victim’s body just by pressing on the chest in a hard, fast rhythm," Katie Kinne, AMR spokesperson said in a press release. "Bystanders who provide compression-only CPR can double or triple a cardiac arrest victim’s chances of survival."

According to AMR’s website, the company’s crews respond to cardiac arrest emergencies over 30,000 times each year. Since the company began offering free CPR courses in 2013, they have trained over 180,000 people in compression only CPR, greatly improving the chances of a bystander knowing how to help in a crisis.

"We believe we will see the impact of increased bystander CPR for decades," the company’s website reads. "In 2010, the AMR bystander CPR rate was 21.4%. In 2014 it increased to 40.8%. As we continue to train more people each year in CPR, we believe the number of survivors from sudden cardiac arrest will increase as well."

For more information about AMR’s CPR Challenge, visit www.amr.net/CPR.

Matthew Medsger can be reached at 594-6531, mmedsger@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_MattM.