Ambulance Girl

Ambulance Girl is a memoir of author Jane Stern. Stern was suffering from depression and was a hypochondriac when she decided to become EMT. Odd.

Stern explains why she chose to do so and surprisingly enough it makes sense. Some of the book is her personal struggle to handle life, while some of it is what being an EMT entails. I was more interested in the EMT information than Jane's life. While I did find her struggle and triumph in becoming an EMT interesting, I was fascinated by her EMT stories. I'd never really thought about the job of an EMT and finished the book being impressed with all they do. I certainly could not handle being an EMT.

It is somewhat hard to be sympathetic to Stern. At some points, I almost wanted to tell her to buck up. There's a section near the end where she really questions what EMTs do and I really agreed with her. In most of her other quirks and worries, however, she was kind of annoying.

Yet despite all of her issues, she became an EMT, which is really impressive, and spent lots of time volunteering as one. As I mentioned, I was very interested in the EMT stories, but I bet a person in a health care field (having wacky stories of their own) wouldn't find them so entertaining.