DailyComet.com
NEW ORLEANS — Before the establishment in 1971 of Acadian Ambulance Service, local emergency patients, victims of car crashes, for example, were often rushed to hospitals in vehicles supplied by funeral homes. Trained medics were rarely aboard.
The Acadian system followed new federal regulations requiring a medical attendant to administer appropriate care in route.
Remarkably, on Feb. 2, 1885, Charity Hospital in New Orleans implemented a horse-drawn ambulance system with many of the features provided by Acadian some 85 years later.