The names were changed to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of the people in this nonfiction work. The author has written under a pen name to further conceal the identities of the subjects in her stories. Mimi Goldman worked twenty years as a Registered Nurse, predominately ER and Trauma, and four years as a Forensic Coroner Investigator. Throughout her career she chronicled her experiences and cases in a journal. Working in the ER's and in Forensics has revealed the human carnage wrought by accidents, shootings and natural disasters. Each chapter presents its own unique story that will take you from laughter to sadness to mortification. While you journey with the author, you will see a glimpse of the tragedy and the psychological terror she encountered by doing her job. If you are considering a career as a registered nurse or a forensic investigator, this book gives you a rare insight based on true cases and experiences of the author. If you think you have the stomach for it, you just might be cut out to be a TRAUMA JUNKIE.

""Trauma Junkie gives us a view over the flight nurse's shoulder from liftoff until the patient is delivered to the hospital and the agonizing minutes in between. These fascinating true stories are impossible to put down.""--James M. Betts, MD, Chief of Department of Surgery and Director of Trauma Services, Children's Hospital, Oakland ""An exciting portrayal of emergency nursing."" -- Library Journal ""Fast-paced nonfiction that reads like an adventure story."" -- School Library Journal In Trauma Junkie, readers accompany veteran flight nurse Janice Hudson as she races in response.

Rachel Resnick hits her forties single, broke, depressed, and childless. Looking back over years of failed relationships, she identifies a lifelong addiction to love-an addiction to the unfulfilled fantasy of romantic bliss, marriage, and family, and to a string of sexual relationships that only carry her farther from that dream. As she peels back one raw layer after another, she must eventually confront the painful experiences of her childhood-and the difficult work of recovery that lies ahead. A groundbreaking, compulsively readable memoir, Love Junkie charts Resnick's path from destructive love to intimacy, from despair to hope, and cracks open one of our more elusive and pervasive modern-day addictions.

In the tradition of Blackout and Permanent Midnight, a darkly funny and revealing debut memoir of one woman's twenty-year battle with sex, drugs, and alcohol addiction, and what happens when she finally emerges on the other side. Growing up in Beverly Hills, Amy Dresner had it all: a top-notch private school education, the most expensive summer camps, and even a weekly clothing allowance. But at 24, she started dabbling in meth in San Francisco and unleashed a fiendish addiction monster. Soon, if you could snort it, smoke it, or have sex with, she did. Smart and charming, with Daddy's money to fall back on, she sort of managed to keep it all together. But on Christmas Eve 2011 all of that changed when, high on Oxycontin, she stupidly "brandished" a bread knife on her husband and was promptly arrested for "felony domestic violence with a deadly weapon." Within months, she found herself in the psych ward--and then penniless, divorced, and looking at 240 hours of court-ordered community service. For two years, assigned to a Hollywood Boulevard "chain gang," she swept up syringes (and worse) as she bounced from rehabs to halfway houses, all while struggling with sobriety, sex addiction, and starting over in her forties. In the tradition of Orange Is the New Black and Jerry Stahl's Permanent Midnight, Amy Dresner's My Fair Junkie is an insightful, darkly funny, and shamelessly honest memoir of one woman's battle with all forms of addiction, hitting rock bottom, and forging a path to a life worth living.

Accident & emergency medicine.

When a former coach decides to become a flight medic, nothing can prepare him for the wild adventure of responding to medical emergencies. His real-life stories about the heroic efforts of EMS workers put you right on the scene in the midst of unbelievably dangerous and difficult situations. Some of his memories are laugh-out-loud recollections about the absurd side of human nature, and some will bring you to tears. Most of all, you'll be inspired to "rise above" your own life's challenges.