Customer Reviews

Talking Trauma: Paramedics and Their Stories

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I couldn't put this one down until I had read it from cover to cover. As a Medic for 14 years, I found myself, laughing and crying along with those who tell thestories the best: paramedics. For anyone who is a Medic, ever wanted to be, or cares about one, this book should be required reading!

I picked up this book and read it straight through, only pausing long enough to catch my breath from laughing. Incredible stories coupled to articulate and thoughtful commentary. Tangherlini has clearly done his homework, and with his book, we get a true glimpse of what life must be like for paramedics. He provides us with more than just the mechanics of the job or fluffy descriptions intended for popular consumption. Instead, he jumps right into the front seat of the ambulance and brings us on a journey deep into the culture of paramedicine--the medics' turf wars with firefighters, their uneasy relationship with nurses, and their extraordinary forays into the city where weird things happen and even weirder people lurk. Perhaps the best book on emergency medicine (and emergency professions) I have ever read--and I've read most of them!

I have been a paramedic for 6 years and thaught I had heard all the stories, but I was wrong. I and my friends (some paramedics and some not) found this book to be so capturing that we could not put it down. This book is a must read for people in or with an interest in the field. MJF

I've been a medic for more years than I like to count now, both in rural services and more recently in a big urban setting. This is probably the most genuine, interesting, and sophisticated portrayal of my field that I've read to date. The stories ring true. In fact, one of the guys at the station swears that one of the stories is HIS call. Anyway, I'd recommend this book to anyone who knows a medic, is a medic, or wants to know what goes on beyond the rescue geek stuff you read or see on TV.

I thought this would be stories from the heroes we see on news and TV. It isn't. But the stories are really great anyway. Funny, weird--maybe a bit dark, but so was Bringing out the Dead. I guess the book isn't what you'd expect--the paramedics aren't glamorized at all. I guess this guy sometimes sounds like a professor, but that's what he is. None of my professors in college ever came close to writing something this interesting. Personally, I think the book is really readable and enjoyable, at least if you're halfway educated--I read it on a plane and couldn't stop laughing (I think people thought I was nuts since plane trips these days aren't places where too many people laugh). I guess you either really love this book or really hate it. It definitely makes you think. I for one won't look at an ambulance the same way again.

These are the real voices of real people doing a nasty job for a [crummy]...py company under rotten conditions. The tales are unvarnished, many are "war stories," some are personal reflections. Each thematic section comprises unedited stories of medics, followed by Tangherlini's analysis from his perspective as an Occupational Folklorist. The validity of this perspective may be arguable, but I find it very accurate and insightful. Tangherlini's greatest contribution is letting my friends and coworkers tell their stories.

As with the movie Bringing out the Dead, most EMS personnel either love or hate this book. If you are interested in urban EMS, either as an outsider or reflective insider, it is an excellent book. Should you find it degrading or negative, I think you're missing the point. These are the voices of people working well past the edges of what most EMS professionals consider normal. If you want "Johnny and Roy save the day" try Angels of Emergency.

This book is a great look at the profession. There's nothing psychoanalytical here regardless of what another reviewer says. Instead you get great stories and clear, concise analyses. The questions the author tries to answer are difficult ones, and there's no one single interpretation that fits all. Instead of buying the media hype, Tangerlini gives a critical understanding of a demanding profession without talking down to the reader. Like the blurb says, you get to "ride along" in an ambulance. If only the books I read in college were this understandable and engaging!

He goes round and round trying to use big words. Not only does he not understand what Paramedics are doing from day to day on the streets, he trys to analyze it on a psychological level. Not real readable. Best not to pay such a high price for a man who is still trying to write college term papers for a living.

While I ordinarily welcome authors into the world of EMS as a method to document what happens, I find it abhorrent what this author does with the stories shared by the medics in this book. First of all, the book is not very readable. It is written like a college sophomore majoring in psychology would write a term paper. First the author gives the medic's story, then he dissects it (bluntly) giving his interpretations of the medic's attitudes, prejudices, and presumably, what the had for breakfast on their first day of school in the eigth grade. The author is not that perceptive and doesn't understand the field. His negative portrayals of EMS and opining destroyed what could have been (yet another) interesting body of EMS lore.