Ambulnace history, Ambulance is vehicle designed for the transportation of the sick or injured. In addition to cots mounted on a resilient base to prevent jarring the patients, modern ambulances are equipped with blood-transfusion apparatus, oxygen-inhalation devices, and in some cases incubators for the newborn. The two main types of ambulances are the civilian and the military. Modern civilian ambulances are built for speed and smooth riding -
ambulance history
As a rule they have facilities for one or two patients and an attending physician, nurse, paramedic, or medical technician. Community hospitals, most voluntary and private hospitals and clinics, and, in the larger urban areas, many private firms provide ambulance service. Because of the rugged conditions in the field, military ambulances are designed for sturdiness rather than for speed and are equipped for emergency treatment of the wounded on the way to collection stations. The military ambulance usually has a load capacity of six ambulatory or four stretcher patients.
Animal-drawn ambulances were first used in the 1850s in the Crimean War. Standardized horse-drawn military ambulances were introduced in the United States during the American Civil War (1861-1865). The first U.S. motorized ambulance unit operated in Mexico in 1916 during the American punitive expedition against the Mexican revolutionary general Pancho Villa. Since the signing of the Geneva Convention in 1864, ambulance units and the wounded in their care have been considered neutrals on the field of battle. - ambulance history
