Ambulance

A UK Mercedes-Benz Sprinter ambulance in Suffolk.

An ambulance in Rome, Italy

An ambulance is a type of vehicle made to carry sick or injured people. Normally, ambulances go to people in emergencies to take people to hospital. Examples of emergencies include heart attacks, strokes, serious bleeding, broken bones, chest pain, serious head injuries, trouble breathing, and people injured in situations like car crashes and falls.

The first ambulances were military horse-drawn carts which were used to carry badly wounded soldiers to field hospitals after a battle. Horse-drawn ambulances became commonplace in Europe during the era of Industrialization and as hospitals became common. Automobiles replaced horses in the early 1900s. Today's ambulances are vans which are converted into small mobile clinics. They can provide first aid, emergency care, various medicines and life support, and carry patients to hospital.

Ambulances normally have emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics who work on them. They carry medicines and special equipment that can keep people alive. They also carry advanced tools for delivering babies in an emergency and restarting a heart.

Ambulances are normally called by dialing a special emergency number, which is different from country to country. In the United Kingdom, this number is 999; United States 911; Europe 112. An emergency medical dispatcher then sends an ambulance.

Air ambulance

A UK helicopter ambulance

Air ambulances became more common in the late 20th century. Helicopters carry the same kind equipment as a typical ground ambulance. In the United States, the Coast Guard runs a public air ambulance service using helicopters. There are also privately owned air ambulance services that provide for a wider range of needs, including international transport.

Air ambulances are especially important in countries with low population density (few people, living in a vast area) such as Canada, Russia, midwest USA, Sweden or Finland. They can often save a life of a patient who would otherwise die because he could not be carried fast enough to hospital by other means.