Houston EMS personnel recall stories of an auto accident on a Houston roadway, most likely on Westheimer near its current intersection with Loop 610. Two ambulances arrived at the scene to find one person dead and another badly injured. The two men who worked for separate private companies, believed to be funeral homes, fought over […]
A year before the City of Houston implemented its ambulance program, a nonprofit volunteer ambulance service went to the Houston home of a five-year-old girl only to find her dead on arrival. Earlier in the day after giving the child cursory care for asthma, the staff at a local hospital sent her home, advising the […]
The Houston Fire Department Emergency Medical Services (HFD EMS) has pioneered emergency medical protocols, leading the way for departments across the country, but behind the history are the individuals who stand ready every day of the year
When someone calls 9-1-1 in Houston, Houston Fire Department EMTs and paramedics respond quickly – and there is hope. This photo essay depicts just a small portion of the reunions that occur each years with emergency patients, their family, and HFD members.
The sound of helicopter blades beating overhead draws one’s eyes instinctively to the sky. Is there a traffic problem? Is it a police chase? Or is someone being rushed to the hospital? Spying the familiar red helicopter, whether the words Life Flight are visible on the exterior or not, the viewer immediately knows someone’s life […]
For 178 years, organized groups of firefighters have battled Houston fires, with the first volunteer bucket brigade established less than two years after the city’s founding in 1836. This photo essay offers a visual chronicle of the department’s history.
Download the full pdf. Vol. 14, No. 1 (Fall 2016) Letter from the Editor by Debbie Z. Harwell 2 Pioneering Houston EMS: Answering the Call By La’Nora Jefferson, James Thornock, and Paulina De Paz 7 Houston Setting the Standard for Emergency Care By La’Nora Jefferson, James Thornock, and Paulina De Paz 15 On Call […]
By Rachel Penland Texas is known for its tall tales and colorful characters who tamed the land. Exaggeration characterizes some of these stories but some are true. Such is the case with the state’s first female surgeon, Dr. Sofie Herzog, a legend in our region. Sofie Deligath was born in Vienna, Austria, on February 4, […]
Houston History published by the Welcome Wilson Houston History Collaborative and the Center for Public History at the University of Houston hosted a panel to explore our region’s hurricane history and, the effort to provide relief to the thousands of people displace by Hurricane Katrina. Done as part of the Harris County Public Library’s Gulf Coast […]
The history of Filipinos in the southern United States stretches back to the mid-eighteenth century, when burgeoning trade routes between the two lands encouraged small numbers of Filipino migrants to settle in some of their first enclaves in the Americas.
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