We quite literally owe the entire field of EMS to a minority community realizing that existing services didn't meet their needs, leading them to develop their own version that did.
I'm finally seeing broader recognition of Freedom House Ambulance, especially thanks to a recent mention on The Pitt. In the late 60's, the precursors of today's EMS services didn't provide treatment, and didn't respond to poor black neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. Freedom House changed that by teaching volunteer paramedics to perform stabilizing interventions and transport people to the hospital, all while doing so in neighborhoods existing services wouldn't touch. Not only did they develop a service to meet cultural and community needs that were ignored by the mainstream services, they ended up creating the prehospital care system that exists today, where highly trained medical providers perform interventions and treatment in the field in conjunction with transport services. Because of increased awareness, including The Pitt, we're finally talking more about what these incredible pioneers did for what has become a foundational public service in the US. But even now, minority communities face systemic biases in medicine, and studies continue to show that black folks in particular are less likely to have their pain managed by EMS.
Do we get why there's a Jewish ambulance service now?
