In honor of February’s designation of American Heart Month, the American Heart Association, in conjunction with the Kishwaukee Community Hospital Training Center, is offering a free cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) class to anyone interested.

The class, called Family and Friends, will teach basic CPR for adults, children and infants. It will also teach foreign body obstruction techniques, commonly known as the Heimlich maneuver.

Family and Friends is a community course, and not accredited, so it will not count for occupational requirements.

Libby Faivre, community training center coordinator at Kishwaukee Community Hospital, said that there are still openings and that anyone is welcome.

Classes are offered at the Malta Fire Station, 308 E. Jefferson St., Malta and the Waterman Fire Station, 160 N.Cedar St., Waterman.

The events will start at 9 a.m. Saturday.

This is the first year the course is being offered by Kishwaukee Hospital. Faivre said the American Heart Association will hold similar classes across the country.

According to the American Heart Association, 25,000 deaths occur each year because of cardiac arrest, a result of coronary heart disease.

Most cardiac arrests occurs when the heart experiences an extreme quickening or slowing of pace, and subsequently stops.

The American Heart Association Web site states that cardiac arrest may be reversed in many instances if CPR and automated external defibrillation (AED) is administered quickly. It also states that the survival chance is reduced every minute without defibrillation by 7 to 10 percent.

The critical window is between four and six minutes, at which time brain and permanent death begin to set in.

The Family and Friends course sponsored by Kishwaukee Community Hospital will not include instruction in AED.

For information, call Kishwaukee Community Training Center at 756-1521 ext. 3626.