Eugene ‘Gene’ Nagel, 1924–2023

When you think of luminary EMS physicians who started the concept of modern EMS, you think of Dr. Frank Pantridge from Ireland and his invention of the mobile defibrillator in 1965. You think of Drs. Peter Safar and Nancy Caroline and their work with Freedom House Ambulance in Pittsburgh in 1967, and Drs. J. Michale Criley and Walter Gaff for their work with mobile intensive care units in Los Angeles in 1969.

But no discussion would be complete without the inclusion of Eugene “Gene” Nagel, MD, who passed away on January 10, 2023, at the age of 98.

Early Mission to Serve

Nagel was born in Missouri in 1924 and served in the U.S. Army during World War II in the Signal Corps. After the war, he attended medical school at Washington University in St. Louis and trained in anesthesiology. In the 1960s he moved to Miami and held an academic position in anesthesiology at the University of Miami. He became medical director for the Miami Fire Department in 1963 and began by teaching the newly discovered skill of CPR to Miami firefighters.

At the time, several cities were experimenting with sending physicians out with ambulance crews to provide advanced care for illness and trauma in the field.  Nagel realized that there weren’t enough physicians to respond to all the calls and that CPR alone wasn’t enough to save lives. He thought that firefighters, who were already used to responding to emergencies, would be excellent candidates to send into the field and consult with physicians as an extension of them.

While initially not supported by the Miami fire chief, Nagel went to Miami fire stations looking for volunteers to be trained in advanced medical skills. He found many willing volunteers and he’d train them on evenings and weekends on his own time.

Shaping the New Field of EMS

To complete the connection between the trained firefighters in the field and the physician at the hospital, Nagel, using skills acquired from the Signal Corps and newly developed telemetry inventions from NASA, created the first mobile voice and telemetry machine to allow firefighters in the field to both talk to and send live EKG to the physicians at the hospital.

The device, first kept in a milk crate, was later called the Biophone, and became a fixture in Emergency! episodes when Johnny and Roy from Squad 51 would call and send Lead II EKGs to Dr. Brackett at the fictional Rampart Hospital. (Nagel was later a medical advisor for the show and had a lifelong friendship with Randolph Mantooth.)

Nagel trained Miami firefighters in IV skills, endotracheal intubation and medication administration. It was rumored that he would have the firefighters intubate him before he would clear them for the field. He did all of this without guidelines, textbooks, or legislation to govern it.

Miami later established one of the first few paramedic programs in the country in the late 1960s. Miami had its first successful field resuscitation in 1969.

Always Advocating

In addition to working with Miami departments, Nagel was an early advocate for EMS funding in Washington DC in the early 1970s. In later years he worked at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and served as an emergency physician with the Baltimore Fire Department. He later moved back to Florida—to Winter Haven—where he continued to serve as part of an anesthesiology practice until 1992 when he retired at the age of 67.

In addition to his EMS work, Nagel also had a strong interest in researching dolphin and human communication.

Resources

Cygnus Business Publications. (2021, May 26). Dr. Eugene Nagel. EMS Museum. Retrieved January 12, 2023, from https://emsmuseum.org/collections/archives/people/eugene_nagel/

Eisenberg, M. S. (2003, March 1). Eugene Nagel and the Miami Paramedic Program. Resuscitation. Retrieved January 14, 2023, from https://www.resuscitationjournal.com/article/S0300-9572(02)00443-4/fulltext

White, G. (2023, January 12). Winter haven doctor, a pioneer of emergency medical services in 1960s, dies at age 98. The Ledger. Retrieved January 12, 2023, from https://www.theledger.com/story/news/local/2023/01/12/winter-haven-doctor-pioneer-of-emergency-medical-services-dies-at-98/69797874007/

For more information see EMS World’s profile of Dr. Nagel here.

Barry Bachenheimer, EdD, NREMT-FF, is a frequent contributor to EMS World.