Freedom House Ambulance Service & Bessie Coleman

About this episode

This episode discusses the Freedom House Ambulance Service, the first emergency medical service in the U.S. staffed by paramedics, and highlights the contributions of Bessie Coleman.

Freedom House Ambulance Service was the first emergency medical service in the United States to be staffed by paramedics with medical training beyond basic first aid. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Founded in 1967 to serve the predominantly Black Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , it was staffed entirely by African Americans. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Freedom House Ambulance Service broke medical ground by training its personnel to previously unheard-of standards of emergency medical care for patients en route to hospitals. [ 3 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] The paramedic training and ambulance design standards pioneered in the Freedom House Ambulance Service would set the standard for emergency care nationally and even internationally. [ 2 ] [ 5 ] Despite its successes, the ambulance service was closed eight years after it began operating. [ 5 ] Elizabeth Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926) [ 2 ] was an early American civil aviator . She was the first African-American woman and first Native American to hold a pilot license, [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] and is the earliest known Black person to earn an international pilot's license . [ 10 ] She earned her license from the Fédération Aéronautique…

Topics covered

• Freedom House Ambulance Service
• Bessie Coleman
• emergency medical services
• African American history

Keywords

• Pittsburgh
• Hill District
• paramedics
• medical training

Mentioned in this episode

Places: the United States, Hill District, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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