Besides having an important jobs, ambulances are also pretty cool. They’re highly specialized vehicles in the business of handling medical emergencies and even saving lives.
They’re no ordinary vehicles. It’s the details that make ambulances truly special. The word ‘ambulance’ comes from the Latin word ‘ambulare’, which means walk or move about.
What Makes Ambulances So Cool
When most people think about ambulances, the traditional van or box truck vehicle comes to mind. Ambulances can take on many forms besides what we know as the traditional vehicle. They can come in the form of cars, trains, trucks, vans, bicycles, trailers, motorbikes, carts, busses, helicopters, winged aircraft, boats, and even hospital ships.
They sure have com a long way from the first ambulances, which were horse-drawn carts.
Ambulances are more likely than fire trucks or police cars to be be involved in a crash, so when you see one, get out of their way and give them plenty of room. Often, you’ll hear an ambulance before you see one. Start moving over as soon as you hear the siren.
Onboard an ambulance you’ll find EMT’s and paramedics. The two are different, though. Emergency Medical Technicians, or EMT’s, provide basic emergency care, checking an injured person’s heart rate or administering oxygen on the way to the hospital. EMT’s do not administer medicine or needles to patients.
Paramedics receive more training than EMT’s and are responsible for providing more advanced care for patients during their ambulance ride. In addition to performing the tasks of an EMT, they can also administer medication, use needles and deliver more advanced medical care before the patient reaches the hospital.
Think of an ambulance an an emergency room on wheels. They’re stocked with all sorts of equipment like oxygen, a machine to monitor pulse and blood pressure, a burn kit and a radio to communicate with the hospital.
Ambulances are reached by dialing an emergency number. In the United states, that’s 911. In the UK, it’s 999, and other parts of Europe, that number is 112. Ambulances are sent to a scene by an emergency dispatcher.
Their color scheme is to get attention and their design is, well, by design. Ambulances maintain a unique shape and are unmistakable from other vehicles.
When ambulances break down, they have to go to special ambulance repair shops. These facilities are specially equipped to handle the intricate, highly specialized parts that these emergency response vehicles have.
It’s ok to be fascinated by ambulances. They have a certain intrigue factor that makes kids and adults alike stop and stare when one goes by.
Image Credits: Ambulances from temp-64GTX /Shutterstock