A Real Emergency

Stories from the Ambulance

By: Joanna Sokol

Narrated by: Joanna Sokol, Araya Mengesha, Emily Nixon, Wayne Ward

Introspective, richly layered, and surprisingly hopeful, A Real Emergency is a love letter from a paramedic to the best and worst parts of her career.

For fifteen years, Joanna Sokol filled private notebooks with her confusion, humor, and anger toward the strange world of emergency street medicine. As her career on the ambulance progressed, she found herself taking notes on scraps of paper, the backs of gloves, and in the margins of EKG printouts. She listened to her patients’ stories, left food out for their pets, and turned off the stove under their oxtail stews. Once, she read half a poem left in a dead woman’s typewriter. She learned about the history that brought ambulances into their current role as the caretakers of society’s forgotten and spoke to her colleagues about their own experiences and perspectives.

Those reflections are collected here, in a series of raw, powerful essays about the state modern healthcare.

Sokol’s life as a paramedic took her to three different counties: the casinos and trailer parks of the Nevada desert, the cozy beach town of Santa Cruz, and, eventually, the crowded tenements of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. There are no clear villains or heroes in Sokol’s world, only a group of patients and medics who are doing their best in a deeply broken system. 

Combining impactful research, compassionate reflections on her most memorable patients, and the strong voices of her fellow paramedics, Sokol takes readers deep into the everyday reality of 911 first responders, offering insight, empathy, and a reminder of both the power and limitations of care.

Memorable stories!

A lot of really well told stories and gives you a ton to think about when it comes to the medical community. Very much worth the listen!

Wow!

These are such important stories to share. I’m so grateful to have been able to soak up these lived experiences. I hope that the right people listen and make necessary changes.

Lastly, loved Sokol’s narration!

Compelling and Compassionate

Sokol is a gifted writer with an exceptional story to tell. And she tells it darn well, blending humor, poignancy, and drama. Part memoir of life on the EMS front line, part “lifting the veil” on the challenging state of our EMS system and the heroes who selflessly serve the most vulnerable among us. Outstanding book.

Insight into a crucial part of healthcare. I loved it.

This book is so much more than a paramedic’s journal entries over the course of her career. There is so much history of the first responder/mobile medicine field and the politics of how it’s operated today. I learned so much about homelessness, mental health and drug addiction. I loved the essays from other first responders. Parts of this book were stressful to listen to. I take it to heart that these stories are from an urban setting and not all paramedics have that kind of intensity.
I loved the ending of this book. A lot. It was thoughtful and insightful and educational and I hope that the industry can embrace the vision she has for it. First responders are such a vital part of our healthcare system. Personally I have so much respect and appreciation for Paramedics after I was able to say goodbye to my mother before she died because they gave her CPR after she had a heart attack while she was being transported to a hospital for dialysis. They brought her back and my sister and I got to be with her when she passed away the next day.

This book is not good for little ears and faint of heart. The explicit depictions in the stories, the F-bombs, and the intensity of this book isn’t light listening. But it’s worthwhile.

I decided to download this book because it turned up in my recommendations the same time a family member was finishing up his EMT training. I thought it would be interesting. Turns out that she is based in the same area that I grew up and have lived. I found her depictions of the Bay Area and Santa Cruz to be spot on.

If I have any complaint it would be that personally I’m not a huge fan of books read by the author. Often times I can’t listen to them. That said, the author did a good job and I liked that she got to literally tell her own story.

The truth

As a outreach worker working alongside law enforcement, I feel that Joanna validated much of what we see on the streets. A recommended read for policymakers, healthcare administration, and persons interested in exploring careers in public service. Loved the history on how the ambulance industry started and has evolved.