American Medical Response (AMR) announced Sunday that it will be the first ambulance service in Fairfield County to carry whole blood.

Officials call the move "a critical step forward in patient care for the people of Bridgeport and Fairfield."

The EMS provider said ambulance companies have always carried normal saline to give patients who suffer blood loss.

"It does a good job, but it doesn't carry oxygen. Whole blood carries oxygen and we are the first service in this area to actually carry it, thanks to Bridgeport Hospital," explained Dominick Mauro, of AMR. "We are in partnership with Bridgeport Hospital and their medical director, Lee Goodman, who has been instrumental in bringing this forward, along with the Bridgeport Blood Bank. We're all in lockstep."

AMR added that it's a well established medical fact that using whole blood in people who suffer blood loss will save lives and help them recover faster.