Into the Breach: A Year of Life and Death with EMS (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Spring showers have rained down on Brick City and soaked its streets for seven days straight..." (more)
Key Phrases: air medical crews, ambulance floor, rescue specialists, New Jersey, University Hospital, Dispatch Center (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Karam brings her skills as a journalist and her insider knowledge as an emergency medical technician (EMT) to this compelling look at one year in the operation of the Emergency Medical Service teams in Newark, New Jersey. The gritty urban environment presents a range of crises from gang shootings to crack-house mothers in labor, from a senseless bureaucracy to the lack of adequate equipment. Karam takes the reader along on emergency calls, detailing human dramas of violence and disorder that require a heroic response. Karam also recounts the physical and emotional demands on EMT workers, who are sometimes traumatized by their work, tend to develop an insularity that negatively affects their family relationships, and use humor to ease the tension. She details how EMT training and operations have evolved, the increasing pressure to respond to the crises wrought by the mayhem of modern urban life, and how the lack of adequate social services translates into medical emergencies. A fascinating book that tracks how urban social trends affect medical issues. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

EMTs are the field medics in the war zone known as the inner cities. Called upon to save the chronically diseased and uninsuredthe dying gunshot victims, the crack-house mothers in childbirththey must talk their way through crowds of drugged-up bystanders or past potentially violent mates to shepherd their victims to safety.ana Abrams Karam spent over two years riding with the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) teams of Newark, New Jersey, witnessing up close acts of heroism, struggles against violence and bureaucracy, and the inner battles against frustration and despair that TV shows like ER and Third Watch barely reveal. Bearing witness to it all, Karam tells the inside story of crisis response, giving important insights into the problems that neither social reform nor technology have been able to resolve. Into the Breach will mesmerize readers with its action and human drama and ought to be mandatory reading for every social worker, teacher, and politician involved with urban social reform.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312306172
• ISBN-13: 978-0312306175
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #817,015 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Accurate to some extent, August 20, 2005

By	Just a Nurse (NJ) - See all my reviews

After reading the other reviews felt I had to write my own.

First of all this is life in Newark EMS, she showed you the worst parts, and left out the BS. Obviously an attempt to impress the reader. The writer does not understand that without the BS jobs, the men and women who are professional urban EMS providers would have no down time, no time to get away from the horror that is at times their jobs. The jobs she wrote about all happened but she didn't right the mundane that one of the other reviews mentioned.

Irreverant humor happens in all of the human services, cops joke about the bodies in a crime scene, fireman are the ones who coined the term crispy critter, doctors and nurses laugh while coding a patient. Yes it does insulate them, that is why they do it. Once again Karam neglected to write about the times that the men and women of Newark EMS held the hand of the dying patient, or broke down in tears because too many people died that week, she really didn't show the whole image of the men and women.

Yes some of the people she choose to highlight maybe aren't the most stable or healthy, maybe they drink too much, but they are in the minority. Karam spoke of a man who worked nights, and on his days off he would spend time fishing with his kids. She made him out to be abnormal in the world of Urban EMS. Again this is Karam trying to glorify being unstable because of the job. Most of the men and women who work there have stable healthy home lives. They are able to come home and turn work off, and enjoy being with their kids.

Regarding the views of University ER nurses in the books, no the nurses in the er are not uncaring unfeeling bitches. Yes many of EMS providers feel that they are. If you didn't love what you do you would not work in the ER or in the streets of Newark.

To sum it up, Karam gave you a glimpse of the job, but not a full representation.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book does not capture the reader at all!, January 6, 2004

By	Christiana Washington (Colorado) - See all my reviews

I love to read books about real-life EMT's. This book was more like a history lesson on the Emergency Medical System. Boring! I don't want the hisoriography of the entire profession, any textbook can give me that! I want a close-up look at the lives of the men and women who work in the field. This book was fairly tedious and predictable. Nothing like some of the more exciting EMS books on the market. Be sure and read "Emergency!" which is much more interesting than "Into the Breach."

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Concerned EMS professional., December 3, 2003

By	[e-mail] (Seattle, Wa USA) - See all my reviews

I have worked professionaly as an EMTD in urban and suburban settings in three states. The majority of my carreer has been spent in Seattle, Wa. home to one of the first paramedic programs and arguably one of the best EMS systems in the world. The EMS that Karen writes about is not the EMS found in the rest of the country. The attitudes and childish behavior described is not a representation of me or anyone I have ever worked with in this field. We are humble. The majority of our work consists of merely holding a hand to comfort a patient on the way to the ER. We are not a fantastic bunch of premadonas running around pulling patients from the grasps of death. This book is an insult and a terrible read. If you want a realistic look inside EMS, get it from someone who has worked an entire carreer in a progressive and respected system. Not from an adrinaline junkie with a typwriter who has no idea what EMS is like anywhere else but Newark, New Jersay.