PHOTOS: Just six decades ago, you had a better chance of surviving a gunshot wound during the Vietnam War than by being treated in an ambulance on the way to the hospital in the U.S.
It's hard to imagine American cities without the blaring, screeching presence of ambulances, but in fact, emergency response services are a relatively new phenomenon. Up until the mid-1960s alone, first responders were often funeral home workers, who transported patients in the same hearses that would later be used during their funerals.
At the same time, a National Academy of Sciences report pointed out that, in 1965, "accidental injuries killed 107,000, temporarily disabled over 10 million, and permanently impaired 400,000 American citizens at a cost of approximately $18 billion."