Ambulance Girl: How I Saved Myself by Becoming an EMT

This book will provide good laughs for all, but I especially recommend it to anyone who is considering volunteering for a rescue squad. I was most impressed with the honesty of the book, even moreso than the humor, which is also excellent. In addressing the freaky world of small town EMT life, this book fills a void in the stacks of books that rate higher only in their shock value. If you have any questions about whether you are "cut out" for volunteering, or can handle becoming an EMT, you will find much to inspire and make you think in these pages. I don't think it will answer all your questions or allay all your fears, but in many ways you will be better off for having read it, and more prepared.

"Ambulance Girl" is the absorbing true story of how and why Jane Stern, a depressed and anxious borderline agoraphobic, decides to become an Emergency Medical Technician. Jane was a 52-year-old writer for a food magazine when she realized that she was sinking fast emotionally. Her marriage was beginning to fray, she spent an inordinate amount of time loitering around the house in her bathrobe, and she suffered from panic attacks. Sessions with therapists were not helping.Stern started to turn her life around with a new therapist, and she decided that in order to help herself, she would have to help others. She studied to become, of all things, an Emergency Medical Technician with the volunteer fire department in Georgetown, Connecticut. This was a strange choice for a woman who was emotionally shaky and chronically terrified."Ambulance Girl" is both hilarious and poignant. Stern recalls how she had to overcome her claustrophobia and fear of moving vehicles before she could ride in an ambulance. She also writes with wit and disarming candor about her many shortcomings. When she first started out, she made so many mistakes that she felt sorry for the victims who were stuck with her as their EMT! On various occasions, she found herself babbling incoherently into her two-way radio, forgetting her eyeglasses and watch when she went out on a call, and accidentally kicking the broken hip of an elderly lady who was lying helplessly on the floor. In spite of her initial ineptitude, Stern became a competent EMT, and she was gratified to discover that her work invigorated her and imbued her with a new sense of purpose. Stern deserves a great deal of credit for lifting herself out of a deep depression and gaining the acceptance of the Georgetown firemen and her fellow EMT's. "Ambulance Girl" is an entertaining and unusual account of a brave woman's determination to face her fears and bring out the best in herself against all odds.

What a wonderful book this is! I had expected Jane Stern's solo production would be well written and interesting since I have enjoyed her and her husband, Michael's, pieces in Gourmet and The New Yorker. But what a surprise! This book was so FUNNY!!! In fact, I cannot remember when I read a book that had me laughing out loud so many times. I knew "Ambulance Girl" was about Jane's saving herself, and thought, well, I guess it's another survivor story. And it is. But while so many of those other efforts are self-absorbed and in too many cases just trading one kind of self obsession with another, Jane avoids that. With a clear eye to who and what she is and without any self-pity, Jane helps herself by helping neighbors and strangers who are in trouble -- the kind of trouble most of us would much rather someone else handle.Jane's writing is vivid and immediate, warm and moving and, gratefully, often hilarious. I loved this book. So did my 17-year-old daughter. Thanks to Jane, not only for giving me one of the best contemporary reading experiences I've had in a long time, but for being a great, dare I say it, role model. Thanks to her for not having liposuction, a face lift or an affair to make herself feel better. Thanks to her for doing something that really works -- getting out of oneself and doing some good. And thanks to Jane for putting it all down with sensitivity, humor and great skill. Buy this book, and don't be surprised it you think of this friend, and then that friend, who should read it, too. Makes a great gift!

I first heard Jane Stern on NPR. Her story intrigued me and I bought her book. Jane has been in the food reviewing business with her husband for awhile- radio and Gourmet magazine. She found herself sitting in front of her TV, a real couch potato, afraid to move or go anywhere. Eventually Jane realized that she needed some expertise and assistance to help her through this period of anxiety and depression. Through a great deal of work and some pharmaceutical assitance Jane has learned to live through her depression. One outlet was to become an EMT- by helping others she is helping herself- she is less drawn to angst about her own issues. As a health care provider I can understand how you can become engrossed in other people's medical and emergency issues by helping them through this critical time, and how rewarding it is to know you were responsible for a litle piece of this person's care. Jane has also learned that she has to leave the dark, difficult emergency situations at the office, so to speak. She cannot dwell on those she cannot save or those stories too bleak to think about. This book conveys a story of depression that will be helpful to many- a method for surviving while helping others- that's what it is all about.pr

First, this book is a joy to read. Stern's self-effacing humor ingratiates her from page one, and her adventures becoming "Ambulance Girl" are absolutely hilarious. But like the best comedy, this story isn't just laughs. It is underlaid with a poignancy that makes it a powerful example of someone who learns to overcome adversity, especially that kind of adversity that bedevils us from the inside. Ultimately, I found this book truly inspirational. If you like to laugh, and if you want to be uplifted by the power of the human spirit to find meaning in life, get on board and go for a ride with Ambulance Girl!