American Sirens
The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics
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4.7 • 38 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The extraordinary story of an unjustly forgotten group of Black men in Pittsburgh who became the first paramedics in America, saving lives and changing the course of emergency medicine around the world
Until the 1970s, if you suffered a medical crisis, your chances of survival were minimal. A 9-1-1 call might bring police or even the local funeral home. But that all changed with Freedom House EMS in Pittsburgh, a group of Black men who became America’s first paramedics and set the gold standard for emergency medicine around the world, only to have their story and their legacy erased—until now.
In American Sirens, acclaimed journalist and paramedic Kevin Hazzard tells the dramatic story of how a group of young, undereducated Black men forged a new frontier of healthcare. He follows a rich cast of characters that includes John Moon, an orphan who found his calling as a paramedic; Peter Safar, the Nobel Prize-nominated physician who invented CPR and realized his vision for a trained ambulance service; and Nancy Caroline, the idealistic young doctor who turned a scrappy team into an international leader. At every turn, Freedom House battled racism—from the community, the police, and the government. Their job was grueling, the rules made up as they went along, their mandate nearly impossible—and yet despite the long odds and fierce opposition, they succeeded spectacularly. Never-before revealed in full, this is a rich and troubling hidden history of the Black origins of America’s paramedics, a special band of dedicated essential workers, who stand ready to serve day and night on the line between life and death for every one of us.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
As recently as the 1970s, paramedics weren’t a fixture of American healthcare, but this fascinating history explains how a group of Black men helped change that. Journalist Kevin Hazzard details the life of John Moon, who went from being an orderly in a Pittsburgh hospital to becoming trained (along with several other young Black men) as a paramedic, a then little-known aspect of healthcare that began to save countless lives as it was implemented across the country. While telling Moon’s story, Hazzard drops in fascinating historical tidbits, like the history of Peter Safar, an Austrian World War II survivor who created a unique but soon-copied educational program for budding paramedics. Hazzard also thoughtfully weaves in cultural and historical elements of Black life, from midcentury jazz to Jim Crow segregation, to put Moon and his compatriots’ accomplishments into their full context. Like the works of Erik Larson or Mark Kurlansky, American Sirens is a fascinating new look at a topic with branches that extend way further than we initially thought.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist and former paramedic Hazzard (A Thousand Naked Strangers) paints a riveting portrait of Freedom House EMS, a pioneering group of Black paramedics in 1970s Pittsburgh. Expertly contextualizing the group's achievements within the contentious racial climate and archaic medical practices of the era, Hazzard spotlights medic John Moon, who "loved Angela Davis and the afro but polite to the point (almost) of deference"; Peter Safar, an émigré Austrian anesthesiologist inspired by his 11-year-old daughter's death from an asthma attack to reimagine ambulance services and paramedic training; and Freedom House medical director Nancy Caroline, who was tapped by Safar to revamp his training program. Hazzard explains how the 1966 death of former Pittsburgh mayor David Lawrence highlighted the inadequacy of ambulance care provided by the city's police department, which also had an "acrimonious" relationship with residents of Pittsburgh's predominantly African American neighborhood, the Hill District. He also documents Freedom House's battles with a stubborn mayor and police leaders, and the stirring stories of Black paramedics who developed methods now used by ambulance departments around the world. The result is a fascinating and deeply rewarding study of triumph in the face of adversity.
Customer Reviews
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The first thing I remember telling my sister when I started reading this book was that I heard an interview on NPR about Freedom House and the beginning of the EMS and couldn't believe I’d never heard of these people before. My sister and I are both nurses. I couldn’t imagine I hadn’t heard of Dr.s Safar or Caroline or Freedom House. I'd never given any thought to how it all began—and ambulances were still hearses when I became a nurse. The story is fascinating, frustrating, inspiring, maddening. I felt like I was watching history being made and scratching my head because it's been hidden for so long. Thank you Kevin Hazzard for relating the story of so many unknown heroes . . . unknown no longer. I will tell others about this book. I put you up on my shelf with Tracy Kidder. And Thank-you to John Moon for his perseverance against all odds: politics, racism, poverty. I put you and your cohort up with Dr. Paul Farmer who dedicated his life's work to the under-dogs of the world.