Paramedic

More about the book

They live for the action, for the saves, for the streets, for each other. In a first person narrative as vivid as the blast of a siren, Paramedic tells the authentic American story of one man's experience as an EMT, and the dedication it takes to save lives. Peter Canning shocked his family and friends when he gave up a successful career as a speechwriter for the governor of Connecticut to become a paramedic. Making his way through a rigorous training period, overcoming his self-doubts and fear of making fatal mistakes, Canning went from a life of privilege to the life-and-death reality of the streets. In Paramedic, Canning relives the nerve-racking seconds that can mean the difference between a patient's death and survival, as he struggles--sometimes in the face of a hostile crowd or the glare of TV cameras--to make the right call, dispense the right medication, or keep a patient's heart beating long enough to reach the hospital. Dramatic, heart-felt, and exciting, Paramedic takes us into the pulsing center of a mobile ER. As Peter 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.