999: True Stories of My Life As a Paramedic

A teenage boy lies on the pavement, bleeding to death from a stab wound; a distraught mother watches, in mute shock, as her daughter suffers a terrifying fatal asthma attack; a young girl is gang raped and her distraught boyfriend takes an overdose; a disturbed young man flings himself in front of a speeding train at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. Few people can imagine living in a world where such situations are part of everyday life. Yet for London ambulance paramedic Lysa Walder, these and thousands of other emergency calls are part of a day's work—scenes of tragedy, loss, and horror—but also stories of triumph and humor, and all the result of an urgent call to the biggest and busiest free ambulance service in the world. Lysa has been an A&E nurse and paramedic for more than 15 years. Here, she tells the inside story behind the screaming sirens and flashing blue lights of the emergency services and reveals what it's really like to work in a job that frequently brings paramedic teams face to face with death—and destiny. These are the fascinating real life stories of heartbreak and hope, direct from the frontline.