National Emergency Services Week celebrates the community and medical personnel who have dedicated their careers to lifesaving services. The School of Medicine will have several events throughout the week. Emergency medicine residents and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) education program staff will be host to the Airway Management and Video Laryngoscopy Workshop at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20, in the Clinical Training Facility.
The highlight of the week is on Wednesday, May 21. Those at the School of Medicine and in the Kansas City community will get the opportunity to see the documentary, Freedom House – Street Saviors, which tells the story of the Freedom House Ambulance Service experiment in 1960s Pittsburgh that taught “unemployable” individuals from the poorest parts of the city how to run an ambulance. This experiment lead to the first formally trained paramedics in the United States and formed the paramedic curriculum taught for the next 40+ years. The film has only been shown in select cities throughout the United States, and this is the only way to view it. Those who attend will be able to meet the producer of the film and two of the original Freedom House paramedics. Faculty, staff and students are invited to view the documentary at 1:30 p.m. in Theater C, and a showing at 6 p.m. in Theater A is open to the public.
The week wraps up on Thursday, May 22, with “Intraosseous and Central Lines for the EMS Provider” with Chris Davlantes, M.D., F.A.C.P. at 6 p.m. in the Clinical Training Facility.
