If you ever need to call 911, you will take for granted that the first responders who arrive will have sufficient training and skills to cope with virtually any medical emergency
That wasn’t the case in much of the country well into the 1960s, when Dr. Eugene Nagel helped develop the modern emergency medical system. Nagel fostered key elements in the training, staffing and equipping of emergency crews while working in Miami, earning him a place on what his son calls “the Mount Rushmore of emergency medicine."
Nagel died Tuesday at age 98 in Winter Haven, where he had lived since 1980. The anesthesiologist spent the final years of his career working at Winter Haven Hospital.
Nagel is listed among 11 “EMS Innovators” on the website of the National EMS Museum, along with Dr. Peter Safar, credited with developing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and Dr. William Kouwenhoven, who developed the closed chest defibrillator.