Download Gutter Medicine: Twenty-Six Years as a Firefighter Paramedic

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Gutter
Medicine
Twenty-Six
Years
as
a
Firefighter
Paramedic
Description
My career as a firefighter/paramedic stretched
from 1974 to 2000 when were inventing EMS as we
went along. These are stories from those years on
the street. That place I named so long ago, the
other reality that exists just outside most
people8217severyday lives. It is a place that
seems to exist parallel to the normal workaday
existence yet it is only a car accident or
cardiac away for any of us. It manifested itself
in brushfires, house fires, shootings, stabbings,
hangings, accidents with injuries, cardiacs,
codes, drownings, and a thousand other
emergencies.The street was more than a physical
place. It was a place filled with excitement,
fear, tragedy, horror, sadness, despair, joy, and
laughter. It was a place where routine decisions
could have terrible consequences I am going to
the grocery store. Or, I will get the wiring
fixed next month. Where people died or were
maimed. Often, it was a terrible place. Or maybe
it was reality. It was where all safeguards ended
and our job
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began. There were thousands of cases, but these
are the ones etched in my memory. The ones that
will never go away.