The Pitt
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Season 1 ofThe Pitthas done a great job of honoring aesculapian professional and the chronicle of health care , and that necessitate a subplot of a world who used to be a driver with the Freedom House Ambulance Service . The Pitt ’s form of charactershas garnered acclaim for its employment in bringing a innovative trauma hospital ER to life , and the show has been a great succeeder so far . It ’s been so successful , in fact , thatThe Pitthas already been regenerate for season 2by Max , the banner clearly bring in there ’s an appetite for a hospital drama that is n’t focused on melodrama and romantic entanglements , but on realistic aesculapian scenario .
The Pitthas been praise for its accuracy in picture hospital exigency rooms , and part of that is down to the attention to detail and care with which each episode is craft . The first season ofThe Pitthas made a point to incorporate aesculapian nomenclature and also history into the episodes , and inThe Pittepisode 8 , that dedication to honoring history educates viewers about a little - acknowledge but essential era in American history : the Freedom House Ambulance Service .
Before Freedom House Ambulance Service, Emergency Medical Care Was Inadequate
Medics Only Administered Basic First Aid & There Were No Proper Ambulances
9 - 1 - 1 and the EMS serving seem like they ’ve been around for so long that people take it for grant now . It ’s voiceless to imagine a fourth dimension when it did n’t live , and for many of us , it always has in our lifetimes . Yet , 9 - 1 - 1 has only been around since 1968 as an parking brake number used across the totality of the country . A decade earlier , in 1957 , the National Association of Fire Chiefs recommend one nationwide act to be used , but it was n’t until 1967 that then - President Lyndon B. Johnson base a committal to make it happen ( viaNENA ) . Even then , though , the emergency brake services provided were often wholly inadequate .
Enter the Freedom House Ambulance Service . found in Pittsburgh in 1967 , Freedom House was the first emergency aesculapian armed service in the United States that furnish unfeigned emergency brake medicine in crisis situations , train its paramedics in ways that went beyond the basic first aid of the time . antecedently , there really was no proper EMS ; ambulance overhaul were provided by bull in the urban center or the morgue in the suburbs . Patients , some in pauperism of critical maintenance , were simply adulterate into law vans or morgue wagons and rush along to the hospital , and , in rural part of Western PA , they often go with no nearby hospital . As a upshot of a deficiency of medical training by the paramedics , multitudinous citizenry go who might have been saved had there been enceinte medical intervention .
Freedom House Ambulance Service Established The First Modern Paramedics
It Was A Groundbreaking EMS Program
Freedom House entirely reinvented the emergency response by educate its medic to a far high level than had ever been done before , enabling its paramedic to distribute living - saving treatments to affected role en itinerary to the infirmary . It also established the first proper ambulance , a fleet of emergency vehicle that were far considerably fit to contain out life - saving first aid and pre - hospital judgment and treatment than the law paddy coaster wagon or mortuary vans . Under Dr. Peter Safar ’s direction , those recruits who had n’t complete high school got their GEDs , and they were all trained in everything from CPR to defensive driving and from anatomy to advanced first aid . When Dr. Nancy Caroline became the aesculapian director of Freedom House in 1974 , she append a program for the paramedics that include IV cannulation , cardiac care , and intubation .
It was wildly successful , with Freedom House ’s paramedics responding to almost 5,800 emergency call in 1968 , its first year of operation , ranging from mild trauma to critical cases . Working with just two ambulances of its own in that first year , Freedom House paramedics saved the lives of 200 of those critically inauspicious or injured hoi polloi who otherwise would have died . Despite the struggle they face to be taken seriously at first , Freedom House Ambulance Service was so successful that its fleet of ambulances promptly grow , and its paramedics were pay for to talk to and discipline medical personnel in America and even other country so they could replicate what Freedom House was doing ( via99 Percent Invisible ) .
Freedom House Ambulance Service Is An Important Part Of Black History
Freedom House Was Progressive & Innovated Care For The Black Pittsburgh Community
Freedom House Ambulance Service ’s winner was even more noteworthy considering it was staffed altogether by Black men and preponderantly served the African American community of the Hill District of Pittsburgh , and , as such , it ’s an crucial part of dark history in America . Dr. Peter Safar , an Austrian - American anesthesiologist and the innovator of modern CPR , and Phil Hallen , a former ambulance driver and the superintendent of the Maurice Falk Fund , worked together with the non-profit-making civic rights organization Freedom House to base the ambulance service , but they made a point to engage and train Black Pittsburghers as paramedic .
Max ’s novel medical show , The Pitt , takes forethought to get the little details ripe , and one setting in episode 2 fix an issue so many medical dramas do n’t .
The early recruit were taken from the Hill District , an arena that had once been prosperous , with a Negro League chunk club and famous malarkey clubs , but had since been written off by many as a lost effort . The humanity recruited and trained by Safar include those who were unemployed , who had n’t finished high school , men with vicious phonograph record , and Vietnam War vets take care for purpose ( viaJEMS ) . They underwent a battery of psychological exams , testing , and education to be field - quick , and they delivered .
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Even with their education , the Freedom House Ambulance drivers battled against prejudice , racism , and people just not understanding what they were doing .
Even with their training , however , the Freedom House Ambulance drivers battled against prejudice , racial discrimination , and people simply not understanding what they were doing , even into the 1970s . Many people had never seen paramedic before - mostly because Freedom House had open up the concept . They were n’t doctors or nurse , but something else totally , and they were often not taken in earnest by others in the medical field . That they were untried Black men sum an extra stratum of problems . Local Pittsburgh police often refused to mail the Freedom House paramedics , even when they were request , resentful of the ambulance service for taking away what they felt were face of their job as cops .
Despite that , Freedom House Ambulance Service fly high , and the report of these new " paramedics " go to grow throughout the city . The African American and bleak residents of the Hill District started calling Freedom House directly , fearing to call the law lest they be throw in jail or rough out up . Freedom House responded , and their spirit level of care made them famous throughout the city of Pittsburgh as they got their patients to the infirmary faster than the cops and had better upshot .
Freedom House Ambulance Service Became A Victim Of Its Own Success – And Racism
Outside Backlash & Racism Undermined The Freedom House Program
By 1975 , however , Freedom House Ambulance Service had become a dupe of its own success . Residents in more well - to - do white neighborhoods wondered why they were n’t buzz off the same story of precaution as the occupant in the fatal neighborhoods . Then - Pittsburgh mayor Pete Flaherty disliked the increase pressure he was get for this and was also increasingly irritated that Freedom House Ambulance was n’t under the city government ’s control .
When the new inspection and repair was rolled out , not a individual one of the city ’s new paramedic recruits was Black .
After age of cutting support and throw up other roadblock to hinder Freedom House ’s efficiency , Flaherty struck the final blow in 1975 . After request Dr. Caroline write a standardized course of study for EMS recruit , Flaherty then herald the city of Pittsburgh would be usher in its own paramedic service mold on her work , in effect putting Freedom House out of commercial enterprise . Unsurprisingly , Flaherty lavished funds on the new , city - manoeuvre EMS armed service after denying investment company to Freedom House for years . When the new service was rolled out , not a single one of the city ’s new paramedic military recruit was grim . With Freedom House efficaciously being score out from story , it was wonderful to seeThe Pitthighlight its chronicle and honor America ’s first proper paramedical , giving them the respect they ’ve long deserved .
Upcoming Episodes ofThe Pitt
Release Dates
time of year 1 , Episode 11 : " 5:00 P.M. "
03 - 13 - 2025
Season 1 , Episode 12 : " 6:00 P.M. "
03 - 20 - 2025
Season 1 , Episode 13 : " 7:00 P.M. "
03 - 27 - 2025
time of year 1 , Episode 14 : " 8:00 P.M. "
04 - 03 - 2025
time of year 1 , Episode 15 : " 9:00 P.M. "
04 - 10 - 2025
New episodes ofThe Pittair Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on Max .
Sources : NENA,99 Percent Invisible , JEMS
