Kevin Hazzard is a journalist, TV writer, and former paramedic. His first book, A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back, was published by Scribner in 2016. He now writes for film/TV, with work produced by Hulu, CBS, ABC and Universal. His freelance journalism has been published at 99% Invisible, the Atavist, Men's Journal, Creative Loafing, Atlanta Magazine, and elsewhere. He is also a sought-after voice on emergency medicine. He lives in Atlanta.
**Winner of The Christopher Award for books that highlight
kindness, courage, and faith**
"Remarkable....there are a lot of terrific stories and interesting
characters, and it's worth getting this."--Dave Davies, "Fresh Air"
(NPR)
"Journalist and former paramedic Kevin Hazzard paints a vivid
picture of the nation's first EMS service....His book succeeds in
recalling long-overlooked events. It's a medical and human drama
that will make readers appreciate the courage of the first
paramedics, the foresight of a physician not content to restrict
emergency medicine to other doctors and the artistry of modern EMS
workers. It's also a narrative bristling with the indignities of
racism and medical ignorance. Hazzard's subjects defied and
overcame prejudice but also were often overwhelmed by
both....American Sirens isn't a book you're likely to forget."--The
Washington Post
"Hazzard has a novelist's sense of character and narrative drive.
He's at his best telling the story of John Moon [which] makes for
gripping and inspiring reading. And Hazzard's own experience as a
paramedic helps us understand why achievement's like Moon's
learning how to do an intubation in the field was such a big
deal...Readers of American Sirens will be more than satisfied, and
can hope Hazzard has helped revive and secure the legacy of
everyone who breathed Freedom House into life."--Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
A Publishers' Weekly Book of the Week Pick!
"Kevin Hazzard...does an excellent job of transforming his research
into a compelling narrative suitable to his gripping
subject....American Sirens is a stirring, ultimately heartbreaking
story in which jaw-dropping medical innovation meets racial
prejudice. After finishing Hazzard's memorable account, readers
will never hear an ambulance siren the same way
again."--BookPage
"If readers have ever wondered about the history of paramedicine
and how it can transform lives (paramedic and patient alike) look
no further than this wonderful, enlightening work by former
paramedic [Kevin] Hazzard.... Through extensive research and
interviews, the author successfully incorporates the checkered
history of paramedicine with the racial and social history of the
mid-20th century. Furthermore, he engages the reader with the
personal stories of all those involved in the development of the
new system. Hazzard has fashioned an exceptional work about radical
changes in health care and the importance of community in dark
times."--Library Journal
"A riveting portrait...a fascinating and deeply rewarding study of
triumph in the face of adversity."--Publishers Weekly (starred
review)
"A gripping story of the people, places, and times that led to the
development of Freedom House Ambulance Service, a Pittsburgh-based
group of Black men whose efforts laid the foundation for the
emergency medical services we take for granted today. Like many
chapters of Black history, American Sirens is equal parts tragic
and inspiring." --Damon Tweedy, M.D., New York Times bestselling
author of Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race
and Medicine
"Kevin Hazzard's revelatory American Sirens is a rich, vibrant and
deeply human look into the wild journey of American innovation.
Hazzard's exacting and expansive research is deeply present on
every page, yet it feels invisible, as this electric story pulses,
engages, and surprises like a great novel. Each chapter unlocks a
new and important angle of this almost forgotten story, which makes
it almost pathologically compelling to read. American Sirens brings
a necessary spotlight to a fascinating, near-forgotten, and
uniquely American tale."--Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, New York Times
bestselling author of Dr M�tter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue
and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine
"A work that a reads like a novel. Hazzard relates how a group of
African American visionaries, most of whom had been trapped in
menial jobs, saw what health-policy experts did not . . . After
their new discipline proved its value in saving lives, organized
emergency care, like so many arenas in US medicine, excluded the
Black men who invented it and effaced the history of what all
Americans owe them, but this riveting page-turner brings these
medical heroes long-delayed acclaim."
--Harriet Washington, NBCC Award Winning Author of Medical
Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black
Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
"An amazing book: a forgotten story about real life health care
heroes inseparable from the ongoing tragedy of racism in America.
Kevin Hazzard has performed a national service by writing American
Sirens."--Theresa Brown, RN, New York Times bestselling author of
The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives
"In a quintessentially American story that reads like a novel,
Kevin Hazzard crafts an amazing story of an Austrian immigrant, an
unlikely group of Black men, and a minority community in Pittsburgh
who transformed paramedic and ambulance care throughout the United
States . . . This heart-warming story is not just Black history,
but American history, and every American truly owes the medics of
Freedom House a debt of gratitude."
--Gretchen Sorin, Author of Driving While Black: African American
Travel and the Road to Civil Rights
"In this brilliant narrative, Kevin Hazzard leads us on a tour
through the history of jazz, baseball, and the misnamed "urban
renewal," to set the stage for Freedom House, a Pittsburgh
ambulance service staffed by Black men, that birthed the emergency
medical services we all rely on today."--Julie Holland, MD,
bestselling author of Weekends at Bellevue: Nine Years on the Night
Shift at the Psych ER
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