"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."

"Takes you behind the wheel, into the streets, and onto the front lines of emergency medicine"--Cover.

An alluring mix of humor, bravery, cynicism, and compassion." --London Daily Telegraph It's the stuff of Grey's Anatomy, House, and ER--only these events aren't unfolding on a Hollywood soundstage. Have you ever wondered what's going on inside the ambulance screaming past you during your rush-hour commute? Since 2003, Tom Reynolds (writing under an alias so as not to get sacked from his job), has kept a blog where he chronicles the day-in, day-out realities of his life on the job as an EMT with the London Ambulance Service. By turns both poignant and profound, Reynolds's writing captures the very essence of life and death. From the mundane to the surreal, from the heartwarming to the cynical, from the calm to the frenetic, more than 300 entries from his popular blog at randomreality.blogware.com are included in the book. Dear Mr. Alcoholic: Would you mind awfully not swearing at me, taking a swing at me, or exposing yourself to me? I have quite enough abuse from the nondrunks out there. . . . Still, at least your fists are easy to dodge, and if I stop holding you up, you fall over. The author's hugely popular blog, Random Acts of Reality, has been named Medgadget Best Medical Blog and Best Literary Medical Blog.

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

In this unforgettable, dramatic account of one man's experience as an EMT, Peter Canning relives the nerve-racking seconds that can mean the difference between a patient's death and survival, as Canning struggles to make the right call, dispense the right medication, or keep a patient's heart beating long enough to reach the hospital. As Canning tells his graphic, gripping war stories--of the lives he saved and lost; of the fear, the nightmares, and the constant adrenaline-pumping thrill of action--we come away with an unforgettable portrait of what it means to be a hero.

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.

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.