The Other Side of the Street

Book excerpt: You are about to embark on a ride through a form of reality that few travel. The Other Side of the Street places you in the life of a paramedic in the early days of modern prehospital emergency care. These are true accounts that happened in a major metropolitan area of more than a million people from 1979 through the '80s. What you are about to read is true, unedited, unabridged, and told in the author's own words, taken from the daily notes he made and retained from the beginning of his tenure. Nothing is sugarcoated. Most of it is shocking. He holds nothing back as he recounts his experiences with cruel, wonderful, horrific, and foolish people and the incredible and deadly health decisions that he, his partners, and other emergency personnel made on a nightly basis. The ride through the streets is not glamorous. Working on the streets is difficult, real, and filled with all forms of violence, deception, racism, sex, drugs, alcohol, hate, and incompetence, not only among the health-care profession but within law enforcement and fire departments as well. Such topics are usually taboo, but anything goes when it comes to reality. Physical violence may come out of ignorance, but the author includes his own physical battles; some were in self-defense while others were made in retaliation against those who did unmentionable acts to others, including the elderly and even innocent children. For this form of reality is gut-wrenching. It tears at your inner fabric. From your first encounter to your last, you will travel through a world you didn't think existed. Be prepared for what lies between these two covers. After a series of six surgeries over a short period of twenty-eight months, the author is suddenly thrusted into another form of reality. His own life is coming to an end. He needs to tell his story so that others may see the truth. He needs to open the reader's eyes so that his can close in peace. You may reach the author at [email protected]