Untold Story: How Freedom House Transformed EMS with Guest John Moon | S5 E20

SPEAKER_06 0:01

Freedom House itself really was the foundation of every EMS system in this country. We wrote the very first paramedic training manual of emergency care in the streets that every paramedic in the country was required to read. We were the very first people to transmit an EKG from the field back to the emergency room. So they were not accustomed, particularly a person that looked like me, coming into an emergency room with the patient. Little did I know at that time that we were setting the standard. We were writing the guidelines on what was to become the normal thing that we see it today.

Voiceover 0:45

Welcome to the Responder Resilience, along with my co-host Bonnie Romerley, LCSW EMT, and David Dashinger. Today our guest is John Moon, retired assistant chief of Pittsburgh EMS and a former Freedom House Ambulance Service Paramedic. We're going to do a deep dive into the rich legacy of Freedom House, exploring its inception, the key figures behind its creation, and the groundbreaking practices that shaped urban emergency medical services. So don't miss this chance to gain valuable insights and lessons that continue to influence EMS professionals today. We invite you to like and subscribe YouTube Responder Resilience, Facebook Responder TV, LinkedIn, Apple Podcast Spotify, and go to our website, respondertv.com for past episodes of guest information. We'll be right back to speak with John after this.

SPEAKER_03 1:31

In this family, more of us die by our own hands and by the hazards of the job.

SPEAKER_04 1:36

In this family, up to a quarter of 911 telecommunicators have symptoms of post-traumatic stress. In this family, our mental health and wellness are in crisis, while responders are quietly suffering.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

In this family, many struggle with job-related stress, burnout, injury, street disruption, substance abuse, and relationship problems.

Bonnie Rumilly 1:57

In this family, we have vital information and resources, resilience strategies, and success stories of overcoming the obstacles.

Voiceover 2:10

Welcome to Responder Resilience. We co-host retired Lieutenant David Dashinger, Dr. Stacey Raymond, and Bonnie Rumley, LCSW EFTV. We'd like to welcome our special guest, John Moon. He began his EMS career in 1972 with the Freedom House Ambulance and inspired by crews he observed while working as an orderly in a local hospital. After completing his training, he was selected by Peter Stafford to be the first medic to perform tracheal intubation in an operating room. John's got an amazing story about that. And he's also credited with performing the first field intubation by a paramedic. When Pittsburgh ended its contract with Freedom House in 1975 to start its own ambulance service, John was one of the few paramedics who successfully transitioned. After Pittsburgh EMS, he became a certified master scuba diver, the first African American in Pittsburgh public safety to achieve this. And he developed the department's first diversity recruitment program, leading to the hiring of Amira Gilchrist, who became Pittsburgh EMS's first African-American female chief in 2023. John retired as an assistant chief in 2009 after 34 years of service. John, a warm welcome to Responder Resilience.

SPEAKER_06 3:29

Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor and a privilege to be with you all.

Bonnie Rumilly 3:34

John, it's a real honor to get to meet you and to hear your stories firsthand. For those of us in EMS, I think we can't wait to hear these untold stories, as I understand a lot of them have been hidden for the last 50 years. And really looking forward to hearing them from you today. So thank you so much. And thank you for everything you've done to pave the way in EMS for all of us, really.

SPEAKER_06 4:01

You're welcome. Very much so.

Bonnie Rumilly 4:04

So I started your this book recently, um, American Sirens, which is phenomenal, by the way, um, describing Freedom House. But for our listeners and viewers who don't know anything about Freedom House and your story, could you give us a little bit of a history of the beginnings and how Freedom House started and what really the primary mission was?

SPEAKER_06 4:27

Uh yes, and and it's quite unique because um in order to get a clear view of uh Freedom House, we'd have to go back in time. We'd have to go back uh well over 50 plus years to the early 60s. Uh it was during the civil rights era. Um and actually uh President uh Johnson uh started funneling financial support into uh underserved communities uh that were more or less poverty stricken, for lack of a better term. And uh unfortunately or fortunately, uh Pittsburgh uh was one of those uh cities and the community itself, which was the Hill District, um, which is one that I grew up in at the time, I was one of the recipients of that. So if we think about Freedom House itself, it was a community organization uh that was in the community itself, and it was primarily uh concerned about job placement and job training, uh voter registration and things like that. And that was even a little mini-food bank uh located in there uh to help this uh somewhat neglected, underserved uh community. And one of the board of directors of Freedom House, his name is Phil Howland, he came up with a vision and he said if this organization can deliver food to the residents of this neglected, underserved community, why can't they deliver medical care? Because you had residents there that didn't have a way to get back and forth to their doctor's appointments and things like that. You couldn't get a cab in the into the community. Um and it's interesting because the only way you got to the emergency room was via the police. So I'm sure very few people can imagine a police wagon coming to your residence and and two male white officers getting out uh and coming to your door and taking you and putting you in the back of a police wagon that had perhaps taken a prisoner or intoxicated person or even a dead body, um, and placing you in the back on a canvas cot. And both officers got up front and away you went to the emergency room. The problem with that is if something happened to you in the back, you stopped breathing or your heart stopped beating, there was no one back there to do anything for you. So oftentimes you were worse off than when they came to get you. Second challenge that presented is that the community itself being somewhat neglected and underserved, we had what I would call more or less an adversarial relationship with the police. Um a lack of trust from us and a lack of empathy and compassion from them. So they decided whether they wanted to come or not, how long they wanted to take them, even if they wanted to train this community. And it was his vision that it wasn't how I should get that person in the world. So he had trouble getting his vision out to the world. No one would believe him through all of the research that he was doing. And how come this organization who wanted to improve medical care in their own community it was more like a marriage on the merger if you will have opportunity to get his vision out to the world medical care in the world? If you think about it, the community was not someone coming to their door and examining a patient, taking their blood pressure, putting in them on oxygen, starting an IV on them, putting them on a heart monitor. So they kind of became rather, I don't know, contradictory, for lack of a better term. Why are you here playing with my loved one? Why don't you just pick them up and take them to the hospital and things? So we had to teach the community that whenever a Freedom House vehicle came to your door, we were essentially bringing the emergency room to you. So once we were able to do that, basically, uh the community was more than welcome to receive us, but it took a while to get that done. And the second challenge is the emergency rooms across the city were not accustomed to that. So they were not accustomed, particularly a person that looked like me, coming into an emergency room with a patient that had an IV started on them, had already been given a medication. I'm telling you what their blood pressure is, what their EKG reading, what the lung sounds are, what medications are, what their past medical history are. They were not accustomed to that. So we somehow were kind of brushed off by the local emergency rooms. Uh, I can give you a best example is I myself uh went to a local emergency room. We had had a patient that uh suffered a sinkable episode while at work, and we got there and we uh checked him out, worked him up, started an IV on him, and did a complete physical on this gym. And unbeknownst us, okay, I'm ready. So we transport this patient to a local emergency room, and we got there, and I walked into the nurse, and I said we have a 25-year-old male with the chief complaint of single episode at work, he has no pertinent past history, his lung sounds are clear, his blood pressure is 120 over 80, uh, his heart rate is a normal sinus with a purity of bradycardia. Uh and uh he's stable right now. And she bust out laughing. And I got quite offended by that. And I went back and uh voiced my concerns to our medical director at that time, Dr. Nancy Caroline, uh, and I said, she didn't even listen to us. She laughed at me. And she said, if you don't learn to speak the language of emergency room, no one will ever listen to you. I want you to go back in there and find a doctor. So she sent me back into the emergency room. I cornered a physician and did the exact same thing, and it was welcomed uh a lot more. Little did I know at that time that we were setting the standard, we were writing the guidelines on what was to become the normal thing that we we see it today. So Freedom House itself um operated for eight years. Uh, we were only allowed to um deal with two or three communities within that local hill district area. So we subsequently um, I would say became victims of our own success. Unbeknownst to us, um, in one of your affluent neighborhoods, uh, a child was struck by a bus. The police arrived on the scene and they didn't know what to do. So the police officer gets on to the disfactor and says, Send Freedom House. And the disfractor says, I can't send them because it's not their district. And we were at that time had grown accustomed to monitoring police radio because even in our own community, with this adversarial relationship, the police didn't give us the calls that we should have been getting. So we had to devise a way to offset that. So, and I'll talk about that shortly, but we responded to this call and subsequently treated the child and transported them to the hospital, subsequently saving his life. Unbeknownst to us at that time, people in the community saw this, and they went back to the political powers and said, How dare you allow that run-down public housing community over there to have better medical care than I do. I voted for you, I contributed to your campaign, I own this business. You better do something. So the mayor had to bow to the wishes of his constituents. So he created his own EMS system. And the way that happened is it was quite sneaky and unique. He calls Freedom House to come down to his office, and in our mind, wow, the mayor is calling us down, and and we're going to expand throughout the community, and everything is going to be fined. And so let's get this plan together. So we get this plan on how to expand into the community. We take it down to the mayor and say, Mayor, here is how you can improve pre-hospital care throughout the city of Pittsburgh. He said, Take it, put it on my desk, I'll give it to my director. He said, The reason I called you down here is that your vehicles are making too much noise. Your sirens are making too much noise. Can you put a bell on your truck or something? So he issued an executive order that said whenever Freedom House went on an emergency call, we couldn't use our sirens. So we had to stop at a red light, wait for it to change, go to the next one, and that impacted our response times. Now he's planning to get rid of this organization. The second problem was we had a contract with the city of Pittsburgh to provide pre-hospital care to the business district. And every year, say around January 1st, we'd get a check from the city for roughly about $25,000, $30,000 maybe even $50,000. And that was a lot of money back then. And that went toward payroll and day-to-day operations and vehicle maintenance and things. January 1st of 1975, we are waiting for this check of $50,000 from the city. We get a check for $5,000. February, we get another check for $5,000. April, we didn't get anything. May we get another check. And all along the lines, it was impacting our day-to-day operations, our payrolls, and things like that. So systematically, uh the political powers had come up with a way to make it very difficult for Freedom House to operate. And behind the scenes, they had already selected the management team of what is now Pittsburgh Emergency Medical Services. We didn't know this. And they took the same plan that we dropped off at the mayor and used it to start Pittsburgh EMS. And unfortunately, he just couldn't get rid of us because it became a political nightmare. So we entered into an agreement with the city of Pittsburgh that Pittsburgh Emergency Medical Services would take all of Freedom House's personnel, all of its equipment, we wouldn't have to go through any additional training because we were already trained, and it would be like a smooth transition. Unfortunately, when October came the 31st, and we were slated to go out of business and turn everything over to Pittsburgh. And in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, we're going to work for the city. Unbeknownst to us is they had initiated a systematic elimination process. We had a written agreement that this is how we're supposed to do things. The department reneged on that. So we were put through additional training that went counter to what we were trained by our medical director, Dr. Nancy Caroline. We also were not allowed to treat patients. We were essentially placed in the role of an as an observer. I myself being the first person to do a tracheal intubation in the field, I wasn't allowed to do anything. I was the third person on a two person crew. Shift changes at a moment's notice, all in an attempt to frustrate the personnel, and it was very, very successful to say, okay, you all got this. I I don't want to deal with this hassle anymore. So Pittsburgh EMS was able to eliminate 85% of Freedom House's personnel. Me being one of the few that withstand withstood that onslaught, um, fate stepped in. Remember, I'm not allowed to do anything. Couldn't drive the truck, couldn't talk on the radio, couldn't examine patients. We went on a call and went to a person's home and walked in, and the patient was unconscious, not breathing, and didn't have a heartbeat. And the crew that I was working with, they didn't know what to do. So they looked at the person that wasn't allowed to do anything and said, you take over. So I immediately started assigning duties and responsibilities, and we subsequently saved the person's life, and that was great. But it had to be kept quiet because I wasn't allowed to do anything.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

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SPEAKER_06 22:17

So I had to make a decision on do I step up my game and become more vocal and outspoken? Because uh during that time, Pittsburgh EMS, unfortunately, had the entire department was made up of white males brought in from the suburbs who came into an urban environment with a preconceived idea that this was the most dangerous place in the world to come. You have to arm yourself. So they came in with knives and guns. The trucks had handcuffs on them. The personnel were issued uh seven-cell flashlights, not to find your way around in the dark, but to use as a protective mechanism because I'm going into this dangerous community. The personnel were trained to think that patients in public housing are run-down neighborhoods, they don't have heart attacks and strokes and diabetes. The only cause you're going to get there are going to be domestic violence and gunshots and drug overdoses. The personnel were trained to think in that mindset. Uh the personnel would not go into a public housing complex without police assistance. So if you lived in a public housing community and you called 911, uh, which didn't exist at that time, the paramedics would come, but they would stay at the edge of the community and wait for the police to arrive to go in with them. So that was the mindset of the department uh all through that uh initial uh era in 1975. So it was up to John Moon to change that. So remember, I decided that I was no longer going to be this quiet, reserve, unnoticeable individual. So I stepped up my game. I became outspoken on on patient care and patient treatment and and things of that nature. Um and and I wanted Pittsburgh EMS to know who John Moon was. And doing that, I was very successful. And then I looked back, and as I started going up through the ranks and getting promoted, I noticed that the department remained steadily white. Pittsburgh EMS went 10 years without hiring an African American. So I challenged the department on this hiring process. And as a result, it's your problem, brother. So you got to figure out a way to do it. So I designed the very first diversity recruitment program in the history of the city of Pittsburgh. And I used the same format that we used at Freedom House. I went out into the community and I recruited people that had no idea or no concept of what an EMT was or what a paramedic was, and never talked to one or seen one, and placed them into a training program and uh uh encouraged the city to pay them a salary while they were going through their training. And that became uh the norm because once they completed the training, it was just a lateral move into the department. And all while I became the focal point of recruiting and hiring, every class was racially balanced, and that was the normal way up until the time that the troublemaker retired. And unfortunately, the department went back to its normal way of doing things. So Freedom House itself really was the foundation of every EMS system in this country. We wrote the very first paramedic training manual, Emergency Care in the Streets, that every paramedic in the country was required to read in order to become a paramedic in this country. We designed the modern-day ambulance, that BP cuff on the side there, that oxygen unit, that suction unit, uh, we designed that. The head, the seat at the head of that patient. We designed that. We were the very first people to transmit an EKG from the field back to the emergency room to coordinate that with the physician. So as I think back on EMS as it is today, uh, obviously you have to have a foundation for everything. And and Freedom House was the foundation of every EMS system in this country, uh, as we see it today. And it's my goal a lot in life right now is to keep this part of history alive, uh, to let EMS systems across the country know where the foundation of EMS uh rests today.

Voiceover 27:26

Yeah, well, thank you for sharing all of that and continuing your mission to keep that alive because um it's so important. And you know, as someone who did EMS for over 20 years, um, you know, we take for granted where all these things originated from. Like, we just think they they were always there, right? We think that it was easy back in the day, but um, it really speaks to you as a person, all the challenges you've you've faced and overcome, on top of being an innovator and uh um like a pioneer in some some cases of um what we accept as you know EMS care uh today, but none of it was a given back then. So I think that's a profound uh perspective to have about you know, how do we get here and and who was who is behind that? And I'd love for you to tell the story about um how you performed the intubation um in the OR and also in the field, because I think that also speaks to you as a person, um, what your some of the challenges you faced in terms of um you know being observed and perhaps um, you know, uh people looking for uh for you to fail, possibly. But what was that what was that experience like for you to be doing those those innovations and and how did that come about?

SPEAKER_06 28:44

And it was it was quite unique because uh we had undergone this extensive training, uh obviously using mannequins and and we actually spent time in um animal labs uh with um animals practicing. And obviously, unbeknownst to me, uh you just do it because it's part of the training. Little did I know that we were actually being prepared to do it in the field. So I get called to meet the head of the critical care medicine department, uh Dr. Peter Safer, uh, who was also head of the anesthesiology department, too, to meet him in the emergency in the operating room. I go there, not knowing why. And it's interesting because when I got there and we opened the door to the emergency room, to the operating room, everything stopped. It became about as quiet as it is now. Um everyone stopped what they were doing and they start watching he and I. And unbeknownst to me, they weren't looking at him because they were they had seen him before. I was the person that was technically out of place. Because the only time they saw someone that looked like me come into an operating room was with a mop or a bucket, but I didn't have that. So Dr. Saffer, in his aggressive manner, walked over to the anesthesiologist who had anesthetized the patient and said, Get up. You sit down and intubate the patient. And at that time, I knew all these people were there because they had amphitheaters and the operating room was totally silent. And I sat there and intubated the patient on the very first try. And we went from room to room during the course of that day intubating unsuspecting patients. And as I think back on that, failure was not an option because we were writing the training manual that every paramedic was required to read emergency care in the street in order to become a paramedic. So had I failed that procedure, there's a good chance that paramedics would not be doing it today. So um that was a challenge within itself. And unbeknownst to me, less than a week later, I had no idea that I would perform it in the field. We called her and said, We have this elderly gentleman who has trouble breathing. And in my mind, you know, you start an IV, put oxygen on them, and away you go. And she said, intubate the patient and start an IV on them. And I asked her a second time, do what? I thought she had lost her mind. And she said, intubate that patient and start an IV on them. So my partner set up the equipment and um I intubated the patient on the first try. The the irony of that is it also initiated another set of challenges because the emergency rooms were not accustomed to someone that looked like me coming into an emergency room with a patient that was already intubated. So I got challenged by the emergency room physician. Who did this? I said, I did. And who told you to do it? Our medical director. And who are you? I'm John Moon, and I work for Freedom House Ampulance Service. And and at that time, a lot of the clinical rotations that we were doing were in the spectrality units, whether it was the intensive care unit, the cardiac care unit, the operating room, recovery room. So fortunately for me, one of the nurses uh was aware of the training that we was going through, and she expressed that uh to the physician. But, you know, day in and day out, our day was consumed with all these different types of challenges that we had we had grown accustomed to. So it was just another challenge uh that we expected uh during the course of our time there.

Bonnie Rumilly 34:25

Wow, I have so many questions and we could go in so many different directions with this. Um maybe to part two, John.

SPEAKER_06 34:33

That's quite all right. That's quite all right.

Bonnie Rumilly 34:36

I wanted to ask you, just in looking back at the history and and describing the story of the beginnings of EMS, why do you think it's important for providers today to understand where we all came from?

SPEAKER_06 34:50

I I I think it plays a major role because oftentimes we can get so confused to think that we were the first to do A, B, C, D, and E. And and without knowing where the foundation uh rests, without knowing the challenges and the hurdles and the frustrations and the disappointments that the individual um foundation personnel had to deal with, uh, you really don't know what went into uh putting this together. And as I mentioned, it's something it's a field that we all take for granted nowadays. We all think that there was always a 911 system, and that there was always paramedics, and and so uh we can't even envision anything any different. But I'm here to, as a living witness, to point out that it wasn't always that way. Uh, and someone had to be the the trailblazers and the trendsetters and to to get this system off the ground and up and running uh and overcome all these challenges and hurdles and barriers to to put forth a system that we all take for granted today that's glorified on television.

Voiceover 36:14

And John, with all that you've just shared, what I'd love to know is like where did you get your resilience to face challenge after challenge? And some of them were incredible and monumental, right? They're essentially disbanding your own organization um you know surreptitiously, and you still had to move forward. What kept you going forward? Where did you get that that drive and that uh that inspiration to keep showing up day after day and moving this this uh this incredible uh journey forward?

SPEAKER_06 36:46

Uh from a combination of things, believe it or not. Um first my growing up uh prepared me for the challenges and the hurdles that were going to, I was going to have to overcome as I got older. I didn't know that at the time. So once I grasp that mindset and get closer into adulthood and get into the pre-hospital care arena, uh Dr. Nancy Caroline was the really, I guess, cheerleader behind all these different obstacles. And she in turn was able to prove to us that we were better than what we thought we were. She could understand uh the challenges and the hurdles that she that we went through because she uh had the same ones, growing up as being a uh a Jewish female in a male-dominated uh role as a uh ER physician or an EMS physician. And and one of the challenges that she had is when she came to work for us at Freedom House, we didn't trust her. We were so accustomed to uh white male doctors coming in and using us as a stepping stone to bigger and better things uh and moving on. So when Dr. Nancy Caroline came on board, she had to earn our trust. And and she was able to do that by spending time with us, by going on calls with us, by waking up at two or three o'clock in the morning when we were trying to sneak to the hospital with the patient that we didn't start an IV on or something like that, uh, thinking that she was sleep. Uh by spending. True story. So she was able to prove to us that we were better than what we thought we were, and in turn, she was able to earn our trust, and we were able to prove to her that she could feel confident in the work that we were doing, so it became like a marriage. We would take her anywhere. She was able to open doors to get into different spectral units that we were not allowed into. And uh, I'd like to draw you this picture. If you could imagine a five foot two Jewish female walking through the halls of a hospital with four black males with afros and beards, walking right into an intensive care unit, not stopping at the desk and saying we're here, walking right up to the patient's bedside, challenging us on what's the medication, what's the side effects, what's the EKG reading, listen to the lung sounds, what tell me what you hear, what is the prognosis of this patient. So she was able to open doors at different specialty units throughout uh our training component, and as such, build up our level of confidence to a level that there was never a call that we didn't think. We could handle. The results were all not always, you know, the outcome that we were expected, but it wasn't because we couldn't handle that call. So she played a very instrumental role in doing that. Freedom House itself was built on challenges and hurdles and and and trying to overcome different um frustrations and setbacks and disappointments and things like that. So the personnel, including myself, we grew accustomed to it as a day-to-day thing, not something to shy away from. So we use these hurdles and challenges and frustrations and disappointments as motivators, not as reasons to say I can't or I shouldn't or I give up or I don't need to deal with this type of stuff. So you can put all that together, Dave, and and and it comes out to uh a complete picture of perseverance, resiliency, and determination.

Voiceover 41:09

Absolutely.

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Bonnie Rumilly 42:16

Well, I have two follow-ups on that, but as you were talking, I was thinking, gosh, isn't that the definition of resilience? And you you really just captured it there and what you just said. You know, I find it so interesting because you're talking about where the people who founded and created EMS came from. And it's no different today, and in many ways, a lot of people come to EMS through adversity. And we talk about that a lot on this podcast. Um, a lot of people are coming from a difficult childhood looking to make the world a better place. So it's interesting, as much as things also change, they do stay the same in some ways. Um and I wanted to ask you too what do you think has opened the door in recent time for you to be able to open up this story and start sharing it with the world? Because it is something that's been hidden. David and I both have been an EMS for more than 20 years, have never heard this story until recent times. I want to hear a little bit about what you have to say about that.

SPEAKER_06 43:21

Well, to point out the fact that, you know, the mere fact that people have not heard about Freedom House, uh, it it saddens me. Um, but I understand the reasons why. Um and and because one of the initial goals or the first primary goal, unfortunately, of Pittsburgh Emergency Medical Services was to wipe away this part of any mention of Freedom House. And you do that by getting rid of the personnel. So as I mentioned earlier, if you remove the history makers, you essentially remove that part of history um that was made. And that was a concerted effort that was going on back in 1975. And I don't want people to kind of get mistaken. Uh, I'm not just this grunt old former assistant chief of Pittsburgh Emergency Medical Services. I love the department, I love the people that work there, and it will always have a special place in my heart. But we are talking about different times when the goal of the department was to eliminate the people, erase any history of of um Freedom House. And and just sitting here talking to you even motivates me even more to try to make sure that this part of history is back out there. It really does. And and that's part of that that hurdle and that disappointment that that we talked about earlier. Instead of using it as an excuse, use it as a motivator, and that's what drives me.

Bonnie Rumilly 45:11

Right. Well, we are happy to have your voice, and we will continue to do our part to push this journey along for you too and this goal. Um, I know for myself, when I speak to people about what I did today, I'm gonna proudly share your story because that's what it's all about, you know, and we have to see where we've come from to see where we're going.

SPEAKER_06 45:35

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Voiceover 45:37

Yeah, and on that, John, I would love to have you speak a little bit about what you're up to now. We uh we're talking offline about the the traveling, the conferences, the speaking engagements you're doing to share this, but also um the two books that you're a part of, and uh and when's the movie coming out?

SPEAKER_06 45:57

Uh those are all great questions. Um right now, uh, once I retired uh in 2009, I kind of went on this personal mission to try to get this part of history back into the forefront that's been dormant for well over 50 plus years. And in order to do that, you have to, it takes a lot of effort. So um right now I'm essentially traveling around the country to different EMS conferences uh as the keynote speaker. Uh I've spoken at the National Association of EMS Physicians, uh, its 40th anniversary in Austin, Texas. Um Stanford University, University of Minnesota. Um I've actually been to the U.S. Capitol. Uh I set in as an honored guest or VIP guest uh for a congresswoman uh during President Biden's State of the Union address. Um the the book American Sirens, I've gone on multiple book signing uh events with with the author, Kevin Hazard. Uh and the book was unveiled uh in 2022 at the Jimmy Carter Library in Atlanta, Georgia, which is where I grew up at, uh, was born and raised. So um you take that and uh the documentary uh which was uh PBS uh which is still uh viewable, uh The First Responders, uh, which was an Emmy Award-winning documentary. Uh so usually locally as I'm going around um speaking, I so people don't think I've lost my mind. I usually have the Emmy with me and uh allowed him to take pictures with them. So actually, this whole process is taking on a life of its own. Uh I'm a regular at the uh University of Pittsburgh School of Graduate uh Health, uh Carnegie Mellon University. Um so really um this fits in the cachet of multiple events, uh Stanford University, um, my Sinai Hospital. Um in about three weeks, I'm heading back out to San Diego to speak at an EMS conference. Uh, and then two weeks after that to uh NYU School of Law uh to speak there on a panel, uh West Virginia University, Marshall University. So I'm actually all over the place, but I'm actually enjoying myself because it fulfills the desires of my heart.

Bonnie Rumilly 48:43

Well, we hope we can meet you on one of these journeys one of these days. Um, and I think we'd love to have you back sometime for a part two because there's so many things that we didn't even get to cover with you, but as I said before, I think listening to your story today, it's gonna change things for people. And I know that's what you're looking to do, and that's what we're looking to do, and I think we've achieved that.

SPEAKER_06 49:08

And and I I really appreciate that. And and one of the things that um I would like to try to leave people is that even though I'm sitting here talking to you all and and and I'm doing all this traveling, it's it's not necessarily about John Moon, the individual. Uh, I'm just the platform or vehicle that's uh used to get this part of history out there. Uh, it's about a group of visionaries uh that saw a need within an underserved community. They took that vision to another visionary uh who in turn uh accepted that challenge and gave it to a group of people who I would call creative change makers, which were the paramedics from Freedom House. And in doing that, um we weathered setbacks and disappointments and broken promises and frustrations to create a system that we all take for granted today. And as I mentioned earlier, that's glorified on television. Um that to me is the legacy of Freedom House Ambulance.

Voiceover 50:18

Well, John, we're so happy to have you here today and to share all this and especially to acknowledge your contribution to something that we unfortunately take for granted. Um I just want to say that um it's really been absolutely a pleasure and an honor to speak with you and and kind of go on this journey with you, and I look forward to uh continuing the conversation.

SPEAKER_06 50:38

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much uh to both of you. And I like I said, I I don't take this opportunity for granted. Uh you are actually fulfilling the desires of my heart, so I can't thank you enough for this opportunity. So thank you again. Sure.

Bonnie Rumilly 50:54

Well, thank you for everything you've done, John.

Voiceover 50:59

John, where can people find you? You have um any social media website, anything that you want to share? Well, uh I'm on Facebook.

SPEAKER_06 51:08

Um I'm not really into technology, I'm technology challenge, I'll I'll put it the other way. So if you could just Google John Moon on on Facebook as well as LinkedIn. Uh I'm a regular. Um seems like to me everyone wants to uh be a friend of mine on LinkedIn. So I have people that have no idea who they are.

Bonnie Rumilly 51:32

I just confirm and I think that's how we hunted you down, John. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 51:38

So you never know. So right now, those are my two social media platforms. Um, but there's a lot of uh things going on. Uh one of my most proudest accomplishments, as you mentioned earlier when you were introducing me, is um uh I played an instrumental role in getting the very first African-American chief in the 50-plus year history of Pittsburgh EMS uh there.

SPEAKER_08 52:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 52:06

And she was part of my diversity recruitment program um back 25, 26 years ago. So even though I'm no longer at Pittsburgh EMS, my legacy still lives there through her. Uh she's came in and created a Freedom House EMT Academy, which is part of Pittsburgh EMS. And she used the same format. She goes out into the community and recruits people and and and places them to an in-house training EMT program. And uh she's expanded that to advanced EMT, and next year uh hopefully it'll be uh a paramedic training program, all in honor of Freedom House.

Voiceover 52:48

So it keeps unfolding, which is just incredible. So absolutely absolutely John, all the best. Thank you again. Um, we look forward to having another in-depth conversation sometime in the near future. So please, I am open arms.

SPEAKER_06 53:04

So I don't know how to say no. So just you know how to get in touch with me now. So thanks so much.

Voiceover 53:10

Absolutely. Remember to like and subscribe, YouTube respond resilience, Facebook, responder TV, LinkedIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and go to our website, respondertv.com, for past episodes and guest information. Till the next time, stay safe, be kind to yourself. Take care.