Good Reads / Community Library Notes
A THOUSAND NAKED STRANGERS
Kevin Hazzard
Review by Priscilla Comen
A THOUSAND NAKED STRANGERS
Kevin Hazzard
Review by Priscilla Comen
A Thousand Naked Strangers by Kevin Hazzard is a true story of the author’s experiences as an EMT, riding an ambulance in Atlanta, GA. He begins by telling the reader about his training classes and about his first job which was for a derelict company that employed untrained people. Then he gets a job at Rural Metro and finds himself in an ambulance with a partner, really working. After eight months with Chris, they become good friends, and hang out together. Kevin goes to Chris’ daughter’s birthday party, they talk about “the perfect call.
He describes a cardiac arrest where the grandma has swallowed broccoli at Thanksgiving dinner. They try everything from paddles to CPR to drugs, to save her, but she dies. Hazzard describes how he goes on many runs, encounters different characters, he hardly ever sleeps. One call goes to a man who has nailed himself to a wall because his girl friend was going to leave him. The fire department released him. A pit bull dog has swallowed a T bone whole, and Hazzard’s on the case. He describes how he removes the bone then drives the dog to a vet’s office. The owner is grateful.
Author Hazzard takes classes and learns about all parts of the body: the heart, the brain, the lungs. He learns why the kidneys fail, about the endocrine system, and pediatrics. He watches autopsies. He becomes a medic after he passes the exam. On his first case as a medic, he remembers to look for the weird and to take time to laugh. When he laughs, he stops trembling. Hazzard describes how a man got shot and kept running. He describes how his partner ate an entire jar of mustard to win a ten dollar bet. Author Hazzard says every EMT does it “because it’s fun.”
Find this often funny and sometimes tragic true story on the new non-fiction shelf of your community library.
He describes a cardiac arrest where the grandma has swallowed broccoli at Thanksgiving dinner. They try everything from paddles to CPR to drugs, to save her, but she dies. Hazzard describes how he goes on many runs, encounters different characters, he hardly ever sleeps. One call goes to a man who has nailed himself to a wall because his girl friend was going to leave him. The fire department released him. A pit bull dog has swallowed a T bone whole, and Hazzard’s on the case. He describes how he removes the bone then drives the dog to a vet’s office. The owner is grateful.
Author Hazzard takes classes and learns about all parts of the body: the heart, the brain, the lungs. He learns why the kidneys fail, about the endocrine system, and pediatrics. He watches autopsies. He becomes a medic after he passes the exam. On his first case as a medic, he remembers to look for the weird and to take time to laugh. When he laughs, he stops trembling. Hazzard describes how a man got shot and kept running. He describes how his partner ate an entire jar of mustard to win a ten dollar bet. Author Hazzard says every EMT does it “because it’s fun.”
Find this often funny and sometimes tragic true story on the new non-fiction shelf of your community library.