[Robby has pulled Mohan, Javadi, and a couple of paramedics to Willie Alexander's room for an impromptu history lesson.]
Freedom House took us in and trained us for 300 hours.
They turned out the very first medics in the United States.
We started IVs, defibrillated, intubated in the field.
They were the heroes of Hill District. Bunch of young Black dudes saving lives every day.
Why'd you quit?
I didn't. The city saw how successful it was and took over the program. Trained new medics. All white.
Everything that Willie and his friends did set the EMS standard for the entire country. Their program created the 911 system.
It wasn't just us. We had the best teachers. Dr. Safar invented CPR. Dr. Adamson, med student when I arrived. But I'm telling you, boy, that guy could teach like there was no tomorrow. You ever hear him give a lecture?
Many times.
Every time I saved a patient, it was like he was standing right here, whispering in my ear, telling me what to do.
Me too.
Yeah. Where is he working now?
Dr. Adamson died a few years ago, during COVID.
[clearly saddened] Oh. Hard to believe. He was so young, so full of life. A force of nature.
Yes, he was.
More from this episode
More The Pitt quotes · These quotes come from Wikiquote's The Pitt pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.