- published: 27 Jun 2016
- views: 507078
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient. The word is often associated with road going emergency ambulances which form part of an emergency medical service, administering emergency care to those with acute medical problems.
The term ambulance does, however, extend to a wider range of vehicles other than those with flashing warning lights and sirens. The term also includes a large number of non-urgent ambulances which are for transport of patients without an urgent acute condition (see below: Functional types) and a wide range of urgent and non-urgent vehicles including trucks, vans, bicycles, motorbikes, station wagons, buses, helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, boats, and even hospital ships (see below: Vehicle types).
The term ambulance comes from the Latin word "ambulare" as meaning "to walk or move about" which is a reference to early medical care where patients were moved by lifting or wheeling. The word originally meant a moving hospital, which follows an army in its movements. During the American Civil War vehicles for conveying the wounded off the field of battle were called ambulance wagons.Field hospitals were still called ambulances during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and in the Serbo-Turkish war of 1876 even though the wagons were first referred to as ambulances about 1854 during the Crimean War.
An ambulance at the crossroads
the crossroads in the city
and no one will let it through
though its lights are streaming every hue
and the bleeder in the back thinks
"This is the moment of my death;
I'm about to die in a traffic jam
and everyone's so angry at me
because I have the nerve to die right here,
because maybe they'll miss things at home on tv."
You are at the crossroads
the crossroads in the city
and no one will let you through
though you've waited hours in the queue
and the phone in your backpack rings, PICK IT UP, cause you'll be late
call your wife and tell her that
she should save you something to eat
because you're caught here looking at the blood in the street