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    A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back
    A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back
    A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back
    Audiobook6 hours

    A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back

    Written by Kevin Hazzard

    Narrated by George Newbern

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    About this audiobook

    A former paramedic’s "thrilling, captivating" (Booklist), and mordantly funny account of a decade spent as a first responder in Atlanta saving lives and connecting with the drama and occasional beauty that lies inside catastrophe.

    In the aftermath of 9/11 Kevin Hazzard felt that something was missing from his life—his days were too safe, too routine. A failed salesman turned local reporter, he wanted to test himself, see how he might respond to pressure and danger. He signed up for emergency medical training and became, at age twenty-six, a newly minted EMT running calls in the worst sections of Atlanta. His life entered a different realm—one of blood, violence, and amazing grace.

    Thoroughly intimidated at first and frequently terrified, he experienced on a nightly basis the adrenaline rush of walking into chaos. But in his downtime, Kevin reflected on how people’s facades drop away when catastrophe strikes. As his hours on the job piled up, he realized he was beginning to see into the truth of things. There is no pretense five beats into a chest compression, or in an alley next to a crack den, or on a dimly lit highway where cars have collided. Eventually, what had at first seemed impossible happened: Kevin acquired mastery. And in the process he was able to discern the professional differences between his freewheeling peers, what marked each—as he termed them—as “a tourist,” “true believer,” or “killer.”

    Combining indelible scenes that remind us of life’s fragile beauty with laugh-out-loud moments that keep us smiling through the worst, A Thousand Naked Strangers is an absorbing read about one man’s journey of self-discovery—a trip that also teaches us about ourselves.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJan 5, 2016
    ISBN9781442396050
    Author

    Kevin Hazzard

    Kevin Hazzard worked as a paramedic from 2004 to 2013, primarily at Grady Hospital in Atlanta. His freelance journalism has appeared in Atlanta Magazine, Marietta Daily Journal, Creative Loafing, and Paste. He is the author of a novel, Sleeping Dogs, and A Thousand Naked Strangers. He and his family live in Hermosa Beach, California.

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    Reviews for A Thousand Naked Strangers

    4/5

    227 ratings15 reviews

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    • 5/5
      First memoir I’ve read and felt terribly lucky to pick it up. It’s poignantly honest, disgustingly human, and wanes philosophical throughout. I couldn’t put it down and I’ll never forget it.
    • 4/5
      A wild ride. A fun ride too. Very entertaining and raw anecdotes of a paramedic doing his job. Day in day out for 10 years.
    • 5/5
      many things happen around us. we not know about them unless told to us from thoes who experience them.
    • 5/5
      Well written…well read. A real view, disarmingly honest and intimate. Well done to both the author and reader.
    • 5/5
      Very entertaining! Moving and at times funny and even gross (maggots!). From another first responder (not EMS), I really enjoyed the honesty & forwardness of what first responders experience. I also could relate to the tensions between other agencies. I already looked to see if Hazzard has written any other books!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Kevin Hazzard decided after 9/11 to leave his career in journalism and enter EMT school. In total, he spent some nine years working as an EMT and paramedic in Fulton County, Georgia, and the city of Atlanta. The book chronicles Hazzard's adventures and experiences in an ambulance, recounting a large number of the calls he ran and also reflecting on his own continually-changing attitude toward the profession.I realized recently that, though I typically really like medical memoirs, more or less the only ones I'd read were written by doctors, and I was interested in getting a broader look at the medical professions. This book definitely delivered on that, and I found it really interesting to read about what EMTs do. (Did you know that an EMT is not the same thing as a paramedic? I did not, but apparently paramedics are a special type of EMT with fairly substantial further medical training on e.g. using medications and intubating.) I listened to the audiobook and thought that it was really well-done.Do be warned, though, that this book has some pretty graphic descriptions of the scenes that Hazzard encountered that were really just at the edge of what I could tolerate. There are also some lengthy descriptions suicide attempts that could be too much for some potential readers.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed peeking into the world of EMT's and Paramedic's but there was way too much navel gazing in this for my taste. Maybe that's the standard for this line of work but it does not make for interesting reading.
    • 3/5
      This is a memoir of the author's life as an EMT/paramedic (They are different--an EMT requires 8 months of training; a paramedic requires 18 additional months of training for certification). He discusses how he chose this profession, the training required, and his initial job as an EMT for a private ambulance company which mostly transported nursing home patients and wasn't too picky about its employees or billing Medicaid. Later he obtained a position with the ambulance service for a large trauma hospital in Atlanta, and along the way went back to get additional training to become a paramedic. The book is episodic, with each chapter centered on a call or event.The Good: This was an interesting look at a paramedic's job. These people seem to handle everything that comes at them calmly and professionally, and they never seem to lose their cool with difficult people, i.e. drunks and psychotics. He told dozens of stories, but it was never repetitious and I was never bored.The Bad: Some of the descriptions of gore were pretty graphic, and I got the feeling that the author was sometimes almost relishing, or at least pretty nonchalant about, all the gore. I will say he has a pretty good name for a paramedic, no? (Hazzard)Recommended3 stars
    • 5/5
      As an EMT, I greatly enjoyed reading another's perspective and stories.
    • 4/5
      Kevin Hazzard spent a decade as an EMT and paramedic, and in this memoir he shares the entire course of that career with us, from unfocused newbie to burned-out veteran. It's a job I've always wondered about but was pretty ignorant of, right down to not knowing the difference between a paramedic and an EMT, or what kind of training either of them gets. Well, now I know, and while it's clear you can never fully understand what the job is like without doing it, I feel like I've gotten an interesting glimpse inside it. Mostly, I was expecting to hear some interestingly gruesome stories, and there certainly are some of those. I don't necessarily recommend reading this book while eating. More disturbing, though, than any of the gory or violent anecdotes, are the reminders of just how human the people we rely on to keep us alive when the worst happens to us are. They are, after all, just guys doing a job, and, as in every workplace, there are always goof-offs, and people who aren't as fully trained as they're supposed to be, and people having an off day. Even the good ones are, like most of us, just muddling along trying to do their jobs and get through the day (or, as the case may be, the night).Hazzard is very forthright, as well, about his own thoughts and attitudes, strengths and flaws, the times when he's been too cocky or too indifferent. I suspect he's not the sort of person I'd enjoy hanging around with in real life. He's a bit too much of an adrenaline junkie, with a sense of humor that runs to dumb stunts, a jock to my nerd. But I did appreciate the honesty of his self-evaluation, and was glad to have the chance to spend a little while inside both his ambulance and his head.
    • 4/5
      Entertaining, amusing sometimes, Kevin was wandering and just kind of fell into being a paramedic. Good thing he was good at it.
    • 3/5
      2.5
      I guess I was expecting more humor from a book with this title and it was a different sort of book than I wanted to read.
    • 3/5
      A catchy title and a so so account of what it is like to be an EMT and Paramedic on the mean streets of Atlanta. Kevin Hazzard gives a pretty fair narrative on the trials and tribulations of the unusually demanding job. Not for the weak of stomach. I have forgotten exactly now how he made the career change that set him on the adventure but he takes us through the winding twists and turns of the many partners, the near misses, and the burnout. Yet he looks back now and misses it. Life happens and people die. I will say this though if that call is made I wouldn't mind having someone like Kevin show.
    • 5/5
      As a former EMT/firefighter in a volunteer fire department, I can identify with many of the author’s experiences. However, I practiced in a rural northern community, so different from the city of Atlanta in many ways. Hazzard is a great storyteller and I simply loved his book. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in this profession or who just loves reading about someone else’s crazy life. What a fun read!
    • 5/5
      What a change for Mr. Hazzard. He was a journalist who after 9/11 decided to go to EMT school. It seemed the intensive training he received was almost impossible to grasp. It was like you learn while on the job and that he did. He was in Atlanta, GA in some high crime areas, where they should have been police escorts. We take these poor people for granted, like most first responders they see the worst of the worst. But we never consider what all they must contend with while trying to save a life. Can you even imagine trying to carry a 300 lb person down a narrow staircase, while trying to keep them alive? I haven't until I read this book. It's filled with all the trials and the intense pressure that some of these people face on a daily basis.I found this book to be very enjoyable and also applaud Mr. Hazzard for sticking it out as long as he did.I would like to thank Scribner and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this e-galley in exchange for my honest review.