5 Most Famous Paramedics in History

A paramedic is known to be a medical professional who work as a member of the emergency medical services that provides pre-hospital advanced medical and trauma care services in case of emergency. He takes responsibility of providing emergency on-scene treatment, crisis intervention, life-saving stabilization and transport of ill or injured patients to definitive emergency medical and surgical treatment facilities like hospitals and trauma centers. Below are provided names of the some popular paramedics through history.

The Knights Hospitaller was a Christian organization that began as an Amalfitan hospital founded in Jerusalem in approximately 1023 to give care to poor, sick and injured Christians that made their way to Jerusalem. At the end of the first Crusade in 1099 it became a religious/military order responsible for taking care of the Holy Land.

Dominique Jean Larrey was born in the village of Beaudéan, France. Larrey was the Chief Surgeon of the Napoleonic armies from 1797 through 1815. It was his experiences serving with Napoleon that led Larrey to create the modern method of army surgery, field hospitals and a system of army ambulance corps. Larrey created an ambulance corps of flying Ambulances for speedy transport of the injured.  These “air ambulances” were equipped with trained crews of drivers, corpsmen and litter bearers.  Larrey also improved the organization of field hospitals, effectively creating a forerunner of the modern MASH units.

Jonathan Letterman was an American surgeon who was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.  Lettermen served in Florida during military campaigns against the Seminole Indians until 1853.   Lettermen is known to be the founder of  the modern methods for medical organization in the army. Lettermen also has the distinction of being known as the “Father of Battlefield Medicine”. Lettermen’s methods allwoed for thousands of wounded men to be recovered and treated during the American Civil War.

Julian Stanley Wise was the founder of the Roanoke Life Saving and First Aid Crew (the first volunteer rescue squad in the United States).   Wise was inspired by an incident where two men capsized a canoe in deep, rough water.  In 1909, Wise along with 9 coworkers from the Norfolk and Western Railway founded the very first “rescue squad”.  By 1966 the Highway Safety Act was passed in the United States and thousands of rescue squads began to emerge around the world.

James O. Page is considered to be an authority on Emergency Medical Services in the United States. Page served the Los Angeles County Fire Department for 16 years rising to the rank of Battalion Chief.  In 1973 Page was appointed as the first director of North Carolina’s statewide EMS system.