Sturgis ambulance

Tony Karsnia - Deceased - 1971-2020

September 12, 1971 - November 2, 2020
Many of you have heard of the huge annual motorcycle ralley in Sturgis, SD. From my collection of ambulance photos comes this image of a 1971 Superior Cadillac 51" labeled "Sturgis." I'll bet this rig carried more than a few motorcycle enthusiasts over the years.

Recognize this car, Ed?
 

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it's not a SD car. no front tags. might be Sturges Tn. in the 70s the F.O. Jollie funeral Home of Sturges Sd would have handled things. there were not a lot of car ambulances here in the hills. mosley trucks of some kind the Wayne suburbans were the in thing. the swoop and scoop days required a fast rig that handled well. those suburbans would do well in excess of 150 and stay on the road. then they started putting the 460's in the ford vans and most went to that. we had a 74 ford here long wheel base, they loaded two from a motorcycle accident in with two emt's in front one in back a Dr, Nurse and respiratory tech. the made it door to door from Hot Springs to Rapid city in 29 min. some 64 miles, out one town up the two lane into the other at night. the doc was hollering faster, faster all the way. oh now, those were the days. get your new diesel box to do that.
 
Those Were the Days Indeed

I remember one day picking up an attempted suicide in Sebring a little town E. of Alliance. The guy was PO ed at his cheating and wife and thought he would teach her. He slit both wrists and ankles and proceeded to bleed out all over the bed. When we got there there was no palpable B/P and a very weak thready pulse, respirations very shallow. We threw MAST trousers on him, 15 lpm O2 and two bilateral lines of Ringers and away we flew! The cops had every intersection blocked on 62 into Alliance. We were running in a 73 Superior 61" on a Chevy chassis with the patient and our back up car was running interception ahead of us in 73 Superior Cadillac Regency combo. It was the fastest trip to Alliance we ever made, 4 minutes! The guy made a full recovery after a lot of stitching and several pints of blood.
 
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