CHICAGO (WTHR) - A Chicago company has created an ambulance specifically for female EMTs that goes much deeper than its all-pink paint scheme.
MedEx founder and CEO Lauren Rubinson told NBC Chicago the ambulance company wanted to find an appropriate way to honor women as part of its 20th anniversary. That's how the pink idea was born, but Rubinson said it's about more than that.
"We don't want to be the biggest, we want to be the best. So, we are looking for new innovations to create something no one else has," she said.
The pink MedEx ambulance is designed to be easier for female EMTs or those of smaller stature to operate. Two of the key features are a $40,000 power stretcher that can lift a patient up to 750 pounds while using just one hand and a "PowerTraxx" chair that can get a patient weighing up to 500 pounds up a flight of stairs.
"There is a belief out there that you have to be Superman to do this job, what we have done is put the technology in this truck to show you just because we have done things one way for 40 years, that doesn't mean there isn't a better way," said MedEx Director of Operations Michael Pieron.
MedEx is also teaming up on a training program for low-income female EMTs.
"Over the last 11 years, we received about 800 applications, accepted about 50 women. We graduate about 80 percent of them. Half of them become EMTs or go on to work in the health care industry in some other capacity," said Priscilla Torrence with the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago.
The company said the pink ambulance isn't just for show. It will go into service right after the Chicago Auto Show, which ended on Monday.