EP 907 What Goes on in That Ambulance Whizzing By?

 While we might think that ambulances are always involved in step on the gas exercises–get the paddles out, extricate from a car wreck or save from the effects of a heart attack, in truth there are many folks in the ambulance because they’ve run out of luck and have no one to call, excepting 9-1-1, for just the bad fortunes of life–an imminent eviction notice or the lack of food  And as long as emergency services answer all calls, the bulk of the work of ambulance drivers and technicians will never be only about life-threatening emergencies.  This is one of the many revelations you’ll find in Joanna Sokol’s work memoir, “A Real Emergency: Stories from the Ambulance.”  While she documents the low pay and difficult working conditions, we are reminded that it’s the only medical care that is not first mediated by the medical bureaucracy–particularly insurance considerations.  The ambulance arrives and off you go.  In the end, someone has to pay for the service but given the many ways that ambulance services are owned and operated, it’s a hard business to make a profit from.  Riding in that ambulance, Sokol reminds us, you can discern a lot about what America cares about and who is often left behind.

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