Front:
EMT
Milfely
REAL-LIFE AMERICAN HEROES
YORK
JUN 7
2002
10199
NY
FIRST-CLASS
HEROES
2001
FIRST DAY OF ISSUE
G
Back:
Heetwood
EMT (EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN)
In 1797, Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey developed a medical care
system for the French Army at the behest of Napoleon, establish-
ing the four fundamental precepts which guide modern emergency
medical care: rapid access to the patient by trained personnel; on-site
treatment and stabilization, rapid transportation to the medical facili-
ty; and continuous provision of medical care while en route. Although
ambulances began operating in America in 1865, they served as little
more than taxis for the acutely sick and injured until the second half of
the 20th century. In the late 1950s, Dr. J. D. Farrington and others re-
alized that skillfully administered pre-hospital treatment represented a
crucial first step in the medical process, and that this concept should
apply to the civilian world as well as to the battlefield. Often consid-
ered the father of modern emergency care, Farrington developed a
trauma school for the Chicago Fire Department which served as the
prototype for the country's first EMT program: in essence, the emer-
gency room was now brought to the patient until the patient could
be brought to the emergency room. On July 7, 1975, the very first
paramedic units in New York City began service at the Bronx Munici-
pal Hospital Center. Lifesaving medical procedures which once had
been available only at the hospital could now be implemented from
the moment the ambulance reached the patient, providing invaluable
minutes of immediate advanced care and greatly improving the
patient's chances of recovery. In 1979, emergency medicine became
an officially recognized medical specialty. The September 11 terrorist
attacks on America claimed the lives of 10 incredibly brave EMTs and
paramedics who had selflessly placed themselves in unbelievable
danger, determined to carry out their mission of saving lives even in
the most horrifying emergency imaginable.
