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The DO

The DO Book Club, June 2025: ‘American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics’

By The DO Staff

06.20.25

The wide availability of emergency medical services is one of the miracles that Americans take for granted as we speed down highways, cook dinner and power walk through our parks. The notion that within minutes of a person suddenly passing out at their home, a pair of highly trained paramedics (who carry an array of monitors, a defibrillator, airway equipment and medicines) would arrive at the scene to start lifesaving treatment is a marvel that began in a most unlikely place and under the most difficult of circumstances.