At some point in your life, you’ve probably seen an ambulance or have interacted with a paramedic. But have you ever wondered how paramedics got their start in the United States? To be honest, I hadn’t thought about it until I was rewatching one of my favorite TV shows: HBO Max’s “The Pitt.”
If you’re unfamiliar, “The Pitt” follows the staff of the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center’s emergency department through one day (with each episode being one hour of their shift). In Season 1, Episode 8, audiences are introduced to a character named Willie.
Willie was a unique character, as he was a part of the Freedom House Ambulance Service. In 1960, responding to emergencies wasn’t focused on stabilizing patients and providing them with life-saving care. Rather, emergency response in the 60s was focused on getting a patient from point A to point B, even if they didn’t provide any medical care on the way.
In 1966, this lack of high-quality and standardized care hit home for Dr. Peter Safar, an anesthesiologist living in Pittsburgh. That June, Safar’s 11-year-old daughter was declared brain dead from an asthma attack. If she had received oxygen on the way to the hospital, she would have lived. This made Safar realize something had to be done, so he found someone who could help: activist Phil Hallen.
Hallen ran a local philanthropy that supported young African-American men in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Determined, the men partnered with Freedom House Enterprises, a nonprofit organization in Pittsburgh that focused on supporting black-owned businesses. Freedom House Enterprises recruited the young, mostly African-American men who would eventually become America’s first paramedics; Safar trained them, and Hallen fundraised.
The program worked incredibly well, with nearly 50 recruits joining in the first two years. Unfortunately, good things must come to an end. Conflicts with city officials and the start of a city-run paramedic force led the Freedom House Ambulance Service to shut its doors in the fall of 1975, only eight years after it started.
Freedom House, like many forgotten parts of American history, is a great example of how important it is for people to be aware of how crucial black history is when understanding how America came to be the nation it is today.
My advice to you? Watch “The Pitt” to learn more about the state of healthcare in America today, and read “American Sirens” by Kevin Hazzard to learn more about the story of Freedom House. Happy Black History Month, Bucs!
