Obit of the Day: The Father of American ParamedicineBefore Dr. Walter Graf outfitted a vehicle with
Obit of the Day: The Father of American ParamedicineBefore Dr. Walter Graf outfitted a vehicle with basic coronary care equipment in 1969, ambulances were merely transport vehicles. Victims of heart attacks received absolutely no medical care until they reached a hospital. The creation of the Heart Emergency Assistance Response Team, or H.E.A.R.T., helped save thousands of Angelinos, and eventually millions of lives as modern paramedicine evolved.Inspired by the work of Dr. Frank Partridge in Belfast, Ireland*, Dr. Graf created a system where a nurse would travel to heart attack victims carrying with them a defibrillator. Eventually he expanded the program to include firefighters and ambulance drivers. (Dr. Graf penned a law giving these professions permission to serve as “paramedics” and was signed by then-Governor Ronald Reagan.^) This directly led to the creation the United States’ first-ever paramedic training program under Dr. Graf’s guidance.Walter Graf, who also served as a physician in Europe and Africa during World War II, died on October 18, 2015 at the age of 98.* The reception in Ireland and the United Kingdom was not positive and it would take years for the paramedical movement to develop there.^ Gov. Reagan only agreed to sign the bill if Dr. Graf’s ambulances could travel throughout LA County, since the governor’s own father died of a heart attack in 1940 when the ambulance called to take him to the hospital was not allowed to cross into Beverly Hills.Sources: LA Times, UCLA Center for Prehospital Care, and the Army TimesImage circa 1969 of Dr. Graf (second from right) and other unidentified men near the Heart Ambulance (or Heartmobile) that Dr. Graf created. Image courtesy of emsworld.com -- source link
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