During the war, there was a shortage of interns, and New York City hospitals began sending attendants to ride the ambulances. The attendants were given a six-week course in first aid and told to do their best. After the war, there was still a shortage of interns; besides, a survey showed that 7% of all ambulance calls were "unnecessary"; 3% of the patients were D.O.A. ("dead on arrival"); occasionally, ambulances merely acted as taxis.
One day last week a woman was found unconscious in a hotel room, with an empty box of sleeping pills beside her. She was pronounced "apparently dead" by...
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