American sirens : the incredible story of the Black men who became America's first paramedics

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 gruelling, 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.