Ambulance Girl

Ambulance Girl PDF Author: Jane Stern
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307419770
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
The basis for the movie starring Kathy Bates, Ambulance Girl is an inspiring story by a woman who found, somewhat late in life, that “in helping others I learned to help myself.” Jane Stern was a walking encyclopedia of panic attacks, depression, and hypochondria. Her marriage of more than thirty years was suffering, and she was virtually immobilized by fear and anxiety. As the daughter of parents who both died before she was thirty, Stern was terrified of illness and death, and despite the fact that her acclaimed career as a food and travel writer required her to spend a great deal of time on airplanes, she suffered from a persistent fear of flying and severe claustrophobia. Yet, this fifty-two-year-old writer decided to become an emergency medical technician. Stern tells her story with great humor and poignancy, creating a wonderful portrait of a middle-aged, Woody Allen–ish woman who was “deeply and neurotically terrified of sick and dead people,” but who went out into the world to save other people’s lives as a way of saving her own. Her story begins with the boot camp of EMT training: 140 hours at the hands of a dour ex-marine who took delight in presenting a veritable parade of amputations, hideous deformities, and gross disasters. Jane—overweight and badly out of shape—had to surmount physical challenges like carrying a 250-pound man seated in a chair down a dark flight of stairs. After class she did rounds in the emergency room of a local hospital. Each call Stern describes is a vignette of human nature, often with a life in the balance. From an AIDS hospice to town drunks, yuppie wife beaters to psychopaths, Jane comes to see the true nature and underlying mysteries of a town she had called home for twenty years. Throughout the book we follow her as she gets her sea legs, bonds with the firefighters who become her colleagues, and eventually, comes to be known as Ambulance Girl.

Ambulance Girl

Ambulance Girl PDF Author: Jane Stern
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307419770
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Get Book Here

Book Description
The basis for the movie starring Kathy Bates, Ambulance Girl is an inspiring story by a woman who found, somewhat late in life, that “in helping others I learned to help myself.” Jane Stern was a walking encyclopedia of panic attacks, depression, and hypochondria. Her marriage of more than thirty years was suffering, and she was virtually immobilized by fear and anxiety. As the daughter of parents who both died before she was thirty, Stern was terrified of illness and death, and despite the fact that her acclaimed career as a food and travel writer required her to spend a great deal of time on airplanes, she suffered from a persistent fear of flying and severe claustrophobia. Yet, this fifty-two-year-old writer decided to become an emergency medical technician. Stern tells her story with great humor and poignancy, creating a wonderful portrait of a middle-aged, Woody Allen–ish woman who was “deeply and neurotically terrified of sick and dead people,” but who went out into the world to save other people’s lives as a way of saving her own. Her story begins with the boot camp of EMT training: 140 hours at the hands of a dour ex-marine who took delight in presenting a veritable parade of amputations, hideous deformities, and gross disasters. Jane—overweight and badly out of shape—had to surmount physical challenges like carrying a 250-pound man seated in a chair down a dark flight of stairs. After class she did rounds in the emergency room of a local hospital. Each call Stern describes is a vignette of human nature, often with a life in the balance. From an AIDS hospice to town drunks, yuppie wife beaters to psychopaths, Jane comes to see the true nature and underlying mysteries of a town she had called home for twenty years. Throughout the book we follow her as she gets her sea legs, bonds with the firefighters who become her colleagues, and eventually, comes to be known as Ambulance Girl.

Riding the Lightning

Riding the Lightning PDF Author: Anthony Almojera
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0358652871
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
“An intense look at the high-stakes world of a NYC paramedic in the months before and after COVID-19 altered our landscape.”—Damon Tweedy, MD, author of Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine The education of a New York City paramedic, whose tales of tragedy and transcendence over a single year culminate in the greatest challenge the city’s emergency medical system has ever faced: COVID-19. As a seasoned paramedic and union leader, Anthony Almojera thought he could handle anything his job threw at him. Like many medical first responders, he came from a troubled background and carried the traumas of the city as well as its triumphs. He had grown up in the rough-and-tumble Park Slope of the 1980s, been homeless for a time, and had watched murder, addiction, and hopelessness consume those closest to him. But he had dedicated his life to helping people in need, and while every day was filled with tragedy—stabbings, shootings, accidents, suicides—it also brought moments of uplift: births, resuscitations, and rescues that reminded Anthony and his coworkers why EMS was the most thrilling job on earth, even if the pay was lousy and the hours were long. So when a strange new virus began spreading in New York, Anthony and his fellow medics were ready. They had done the biohazard drills; they knew the procedures, and how to handle the sick and the bereaved. They believed that their lives and training had prepared them for this new challenge. But the months ahead would prove them wrong, and would push New York’s EMS workers, and Anthony himself, to the breaking point—and beyond. Following one paramedic into hell and back, Riding the Lightning tells the story of New York City’s darkest days through the eyes of its frontline medical workers and the community they serve: ordinary people who will continue to make New York an extraordinary place long after it has been reborn from the ashes of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Thousand Naked Strangers

A Thousand Naked Strangers PDF Author: Kevin Hazzard
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 150111087X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
A former paramedic’s "thrilling, captivating" (Booklist), and mordantly funny account of a decade spent as a first responder in Atlanta saving lives and connecting with the drama and occasional beauty that lies inside catastrophe. In the aftermath of 9/11 Kevin Hazzard felt that something was missing from his life—his days were too safe, too routine. A failed salesman turned local reporter, he wanted to test himself, see how he might respond to pressure and danger. He signed up for emergency medical training and became, at age twenty-six, a newly minted EMT running calls in the worst sections of Atlanta. His life entered a different realm—one of blood, violence, and amazing grace. Thoroughly intimidated at first and frequently terrified, he experienced on a nightly basis the adrenaline rush of walking into chaos. But in his downtime, Kevin reflected on how people’s facades drop away when catastrophe strikes. As his hours on the job piled up, he realized he was beginning to see into the truth of things. There is no pretense five beats into a chest compression, or in an alley next to a crack den, or on a dimly lit highway where cars have collided. Eventually, what had at first seemed impossible happened: Kevin acquired mastery. And in the process he was able to discern the professional differences between his freewheeling peers, what marked each—as he termed them—as “a tourist,” “true believer,” or “killer.” Combining indelible scenes that remind us of life’s fragile beauty with laugh-out-loud moments that keep us smiling through the worst, A Thousand Naked Strangers is an absorbing read about one man’s journey of self-discovery—a trip that also teaches us about ourselves.

Hard Roll

Hard Roll PDF Author: Jon McCarthy
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1455623229
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Experience the rush as an emergency medic details some of the most formative calls of his career in the Big Easy in this action-packed memoir. Known as one of America’s most dangerous cities, New Orleans plays host to incidents ranging from the tragic and disturbing to the completely bizarre—and during his career as an emergency medic, Jon McCarthy saw it all. He chronicles some of the most formative calls of his career in this autobiography that reads like crime fiction. McCarthy demonstrates with detail and clarity that the difficult choice is often the right choice. While not for the faint of heart, each entry in this collection provides poignant insight into the bonds between medics and the people and city they serve. Praise for Hard Roll “One of the things Jon McCarthy does so well in this book is capture that combination of adrenaline, dark humor, and old-fashioned heroism that makes up the daily life of a first responder.” —Susan Larson, NPR’s The Reading Life “Masterfully describes the exhilaration of touching a patient at their most vulnerable moment and the emotional toll it takes when the outcome is not favorable and the sheer joy when medical experience meets the opportunity to make a difference . . . A must-read as one tries to grasp the social inequities, fragility of the war on crime, and paucity of basic healthcare that plagues our urban communities.” —Juliette M. Saussy, FACEP, former director and medical director of the New Orleans EMS, former paramedic, City of New Orleans

My Ambulance Education

My Ambulance Education PDF Author: Joseph F. Clark
Publisher: Firefly Books
ISBN: 177088002X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
The brutally honest story of an emergency medical technician. At 18, Joseph Clark started working as an ambulance attendant to pay his way through college. For the next seven years he worked New York City's most dangerous neighborhoods as an emergency medical technician (EMT), dealing with the medical emergencies from drug overdoses, gang fights, car crashes and worse, all while juggling schoolwork and a personal life. His stories are a graphic portrayal of the life of an ambulance EMT. From dealing with a body that is frozen solid and trapped under a front porch to climbing into the burned-out wreck of a car to treat the seriously injured driver, Clark's stories are horrifying, poignant, touching and often filled with the dark humor that is so characteristic of the people who work under extreme stress. My Ambulance Education is a testament to the medical first responders who scramble to provide the on-the-spot care so vital to the survival of victims. EMTs struggle daily (and nightly) with emotional strain, sleep deprivation and, inevitably, burnout.

Paramedic to the Prince

Paramedic to the Prince PDF Author: Patrick (Tom) Notestine
Publisher: Booksurge Publishing
ISBN: 9781439245811
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A Californian paramedic answers an advertisement for contract work at a military hospital in Saudi Arabia. So his adventure begins. This is a riveting, factual account of his ten years inside a country seldom seen by the outside world. Working on the private medical staff of King Abdullah, no western writer has ever been this close to the "House of Saud". The author takes you on a journey from the desert camps of the Bedouin to the highest echelons of the Saudi royal family. From meetings between King Abdullah and Yasser Arafat to the death of Edi Amin the author documents it all. Themes explored include the contrast of cultures and the rise of terrorism in a post 9/11 world. The author's unique and often humorous perspective provides a view of Saudi society that has never before been documented by any other book in this genre. The author gives an important insight to events that continue to affect the world today.

Ambulance Man

Ambulance Man PDF Author: Brian Casey
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781732565128
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Ride along with the calm and measured paramedics of 1980s ambulance work as they navigate speed and gore. Chronicled are the memories of a boy who followed the sirens' call into manhood utilizing grit and imagination to overcome hidden deficits. Ambulance Man is the sometimes funny, sometimes frightening, but always heartfelt story of a young man's entry into ambulance work. The police story has been widely written and portrayed, the firefighter unceasingly praised, yet it is the ambulance EMT or paramedic who suddenly appears at the side of the sick and injured, and remains a mystery to most. Experience the sights, sounds, strategies, and raw emotions of this uniquely intense and rewarding occupation.

Black Flies

Black Flies PDF Author: Shannon Burke
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1593762542
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
A “raw and fascinating” novel based on the author’s experiences as a New York City paramedic during the crack epidemic—”Burke is a poet of trauma” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Black Flies is the story of paramedic Ollie Cross and his first year on the job in mid-’90s Harlem. It is a ground’s eye view of life on the streets: the shootouts, the bad cops, the hopeless patients, the dark humor in bizarre circumstances, and one medic’s struggle to maintain his desire to help despite his growing callousness. It is the story of lives that hang in the balance, and of a single job with a misdiagnosed newborn that sends Cross and his partner into a life-changing struggle between good and evil. “Although Black Flies is a novel, it contains more reflections of lived experience than some memoirs. . . . Reading this arresting, confrontational book is like reading Dispatches, Michael Herr’s indelible account of his years as a reporter in Vietnam.” —The New York Times Book Review

Wild Rescues

Wild Rescues PDF Author: Kevin Grange
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1641602031
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
"Kevin Grange details nearly everything that possibly could go wrong in a national park and yet still manages to make you more excited than ever to hit the trail." —Conor Knighton, New York Times bestselling author of Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park Wild Rescues is a fast-paced, firsthand glimpse into the exciting lives of paramedics who work with the National Park Service: a unique brand of park rangers who respond to medical and traumatic emergencies in some of the most isolated and rugged parts of America. In 2014, Kevin Grange left his job as a paramedic in Los Angeles to work in a response area with 2.2 million acres: Yellowstone National Park. Seeking a break from city life and urban EMS, he wanted to experience pure nature, fulfill his dream of working for the National Park Service, and take a crash-course in wilderness medicine. Grange's epic journey took him to Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Teton National Parks where, among other calls, he battled to save the lives of a heart attack victim at Old Faithful, a hiker who'd fractured his skull below Yosemite Falls, and a snowmobiler who launched into a deep gorge in the shadow of the jagged Tetons. Grange was initially overwhelmed—and out of his element—providing patient care in an extreme environment with limited resources and a two-hour drive to the nearest hospital. But he came to enjoy the challenges and steep learning curve of wilderness medicine. Between calls, Grange reflects upon the democratic ideal of the National Park mission, the beauty of the land, and the many threats facing it. With visitation rising, budgets shrinking, and people loving our parks to death, he realized that—along with the health of his patients—he was also fighting for the life of "America's Best Idea."

Here Hold My Drink and Watch This

Here Hold My Drink and Watch This PDF Author: Sunny Whitfield
Publisher: Tablo Pty Limited
ISBN: 9781649697974
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
With a medley of experiences from the earliest days as a student paramedic, qualified officer, humanitarian health assistant, and high altitude medical officer, this book has underpinned the story of an everyday paramedic. Whilst thousands of ambulance officers, emergency medical technicians and paramedics criss-cross their way through communities around the world to provide support to people, 'Here Hold My Drink and Watch This' has captured a rare insight into the real people of paramedicine. Written from a down-to-earth perspective, Sunny brings to life the challenging and confronting work paramedics are faced with on a daily basis yet also finds some humour and consolation amongst the confusion and chaos.