An ambulance is a type of vehicle made to carry sick or injured people. Normally, ambulances go to people in emergencies to take people to hospital. Examples of emergencies include heart attacks, strokes, serious bleeding, broken bones, chest pain, serious head injuries, trouble breathing, and people injured in situations like car crashes and falls.
The first ambulances were used on battlefields, when horse-drawn carts carried badly wounded soldiers to field hospitals after the battle. Horse-drawn ambulances became commonplace in Europe and North America in the 19th century, as hospitals became common. Automobiles replaced horses in the early 1900s. Today's ambulances are vans which are converted into small mobile clinics. They can provide first aid, emergency care, various medicines and life support, and carry patients to hospital.
Ambulances normally have emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics who work on them. They carry medicines and special equipment that can keep people alive. They also carry advanced tools for delivering babies in an emergency and restarting a heart.
Ambulances are normally called by dialing a special emergency number, which is different from country to country. In the United Kingdom, this number is 999; United States 911; Europe 112. An emergency medical dispatcher then sends an ambulance.