The Rise of the Modern Paramedic Training Program

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John Moon: The world's first medics will be black men from the Hill District of Pittsburgh. He says anesthesiologist Peter Safer wanted to create a modern paramedic training program. John Moon: But everybody who you recruit for this program, they have to come from the hill and they have to be black.

As recently as 1965, if you had a medical emergency, the people who showed up at your door would be volunteer firefighters, police officers, or undertakers with a hearse. Today, the story of how a group of Black men from Pittsburgh changed that.

Kevin Hazzard’s book is American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics.

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