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Riding the Lightning

A Year in the Life of a New York City Paramedic

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

"An intense look at the high-stakes world of a NYC paramedic in the months before and after COVID-19 altered our landscape."Damon Tweedy, MD, author of Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine

The education of a New York City paramedic, whose tales of tragedy and transcendence over a single year culminate in the greatest challenge the city's emergency medical system has ever faced: COVID-19.

As a seasoned paramedic and union leader, Anthony Almojera thought he could handle anything his job threw at him. Like many medical first responders, he came from a troubled background and carried the traumas of the city as well as its triumphs. He had grown up in the rough-and-tumble Park Slope of the 1980s, been homeless for a time, and had watched murder, addiction, and hopelessness consume those closest to him. But he had dedicated his life to helping people in need, and while every day was filled with tragedy—stabbings, shootings, accidents, suicides—it also brought moments of uplift: births, resuscitations, and rescues that reminded Anthony and his coworkers why EMS was the most thrilling job on earth, even if the pay was lousy and the hours were long.

So when a strange new virus began spreading in New York, Anthony and his fellow medics were ready. They had done the biohazard drills; they knew the procedures, and how to handle the sick and the bereaved. They believed that their lives and training had prepared them for this new challenge. But the months ahead would prove them wrong, and would push New York's EMS workers, and Anthony himself, to the breaking point—and beyond.

Following one paramedic into hell and back, Riding the Lightning tells the story of New York City's darkest days through the eyes of its frontline medical workers and the community they serve: ordinary people who will continue to make New York an extraordinary place long after it has been reborn from the ashes of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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    • Library Journal

      January 1, 2022

      An EMS lieutenant and vice president of the New York Fire Department's EMS officers' union, Almojera entered 2020 as a seasoned first responder convinced that he could conquer the challenges of a new virus that was popping up. Here he explains what it was like to see the entire EMS system pushed to the brink by that virus--and come back swinging. With a 35,000-copy first printing; Almojera has been profiled in many media outlets and on the front page of the Washington Post.

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Kirkus

      May 15, 2022
      A ride-along adventure with a seasoned paramedic through some of New York City's darker days. A veteran lieutenant paramedic with the New York Fire Department, one of the country's largest and busiest, Almojera begins strong with an introductory story about the harrowing ravages of Covid-19 in early 2020. As the author recounts, his biggest career challenges arrived with the first wave of the virus. After the suspenseful early pages, Almojera shares the details of his middle-class Brooklyn upbringing as an intuitive student fighting the rising tide of an increasingly dysfunctional family while expressing appreciation for the seasoned mentor who ushered him into the medical response business. In the spring of 2020, drastically overwhelmed by a mounting, seemingly unstoppable Covid-19 death toll in New York City, Almojera admits the first wave of the pandemic "broke us." Even worse were the residual grief and anxiety that ruthlessly engulfed EMS workers; suicides, resignations, and total burnout were all part of the new normal within a department already hobbled by mismanagement, undercompensation, and rampant staff turnover. The episodes and memories the author evokes form a tapestry of compassion, dedication, and suffering, ranging from bloody, grisly scenes to excruciatingly sad, inspiring, and uplifting moments with the public he serves. Almojera also writes about how the unique mixture of EMTs he has worked with, whom he calls his surrogate family, formed a safety net of mutual support and solidarity. Running alongside Almojera's frantic work duties is a chronicle of his personal life, which remained fractured by the tragic murder of his troubled brother, Richie, and memories of his father's clandestine extramarital affairs. Dedicated to "broken people everywhere," this book brings the experience of an urban medical response worker into vivid focus, and aspiring EMT's will find the narrative alternately harrowing, revealing, and invaluable. A page-turning and reflective journey through a year in a pandemic-era metropolis.

      COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from May 1, 2022

      In his engrossing first-hand account, Almojera describes being a New York City emergency medical services responder in early 2020 when the COVID virus appeared and highlighted inequities and divisions in the United States' largest populated city. This is a tale of resilience, told with a feeling for the grittiness, cultural vibrancy, and immediacy of multi-ethnic New York City. Almojera, a 17-year veteran of the FDNY EMS, explains that pre-pandemic, turnover among his colleagues was already high, and pay was low for employees of both New York's municipal and its private ambulance services, even as they attended to victims of accidents, assaults, and suicides. He also shares the frenzied and addicting nature of his EMS work, defines paramedics' medical shorthand, and gives his frank opinions of politicians and other public figures. Comparable (albeit pre-COVID) paramedic narratives include Kevin Grange's Lights and Sirens and Patrick Ramsey's Life, Death, or Somewhere In-Between. VERDICT Fans of TV shows about emergency medicine will appreciate the fast, episodic pace and life lessons of Almojera's memoir.--Frederick J. Augustyn Jr.

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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