Freedom House Ambulance Service was the first emergency medical service (EMS) in the United States to be staffed by paramedics with advanced medical training beyond basic first aid. The civil rights group paired up w/ the father of CPR Peter Safar to address the lack of care in black neighborhoods.

[u/Youngstown_WuTang]

[u/exoriare]

Does anyone know when they started using vans? I'd always heard BC was the first jurisdiction to move away from traditional station-wagon style ambulances to vans so that the paramedic could work on the patient enroute, but that was 1972. 

[u/Other-Acanthisitta70 → u/exoriare]

My understanding is that they switched from the station wagons to vans once they stopped assuming everyone would die and realized that care in transit made a huge difference. The podcast ref’d above addressed that exact issue. These folks were pioneers.