Breathe: Essays from a Recovering Paramedic

by Marianne C Paiva

An ambulance speeds through the night in tule fog across the Central Valley of California, siren blaring, EMTs ready, racing, praying to save lives. These essays follow Marianne Paiva in her captivating and heart wrenching adventures as she recalls her four-year journey as an emergency medical technician in the small farm towns and back roads of Glenn County, California. Told with an ultimately uplifting and descriptive power, this collection describes those precious minutes after we dial 911. Exciting and adventurous and written with great compassion, Breathe is a book you can't put down. -Claire Braz-Valentine

Genres: Nonfiction

140 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 20, 2011

Reviews

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really hard to put down! I really enjoyed each story and especially related to her book as someone who is also a writer, hearing her own voice and reflections amongst those of strangers. A great read to de-stress although sad at times gives a good reminder that human nature is inherently one that grows stronger with relationships and wants everyone to live.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

😢

This was not at all what I expected. I think for the most part it was not that good even boring in spots.

[Whistler's Mom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sirens and flashing lights are not for everyone.

A year ago I read SILENT SIREN by paramedic Matthew Sias and I still think it's one of the most out-standing books I've ever read. Sias has spent decades in the field and is not a "recovering" paramedic, but a very active one. Starting as a teenage volunteer, he's one of the few who was able to make peace with the demands of the profession. Many others fall by the wayside.

This author was a paramedic who quit after a few years and her experience raises some intriguing questions. Was she under additional stress because of being a young woman in a male-dominated field? Was she TOO empathetic to last in a job that requires some degree of detachment? Do some employers demand too much or fail to provide adequate support? Or was she simply not the typical "adrenaline junkie" who gets hooked on the excitement of emergency calls and never lets go?

Hers is a success story. She trained as an EMT, then up-graded to paramedic status. When she decided to leave the field, she studied sociology and now teaches and specializes in researching the effects of stress on paramedics and how improvements can be made. It can be argued that her contributions have been as important than if she had continued to work as a paramedic.

While her paramedic stories are fascinating, I was just as interested in the glimpses she gives of her childhood and family. She was a "free range" kid before the term was coined and a single mother at seventeen. Life in her not-very-affluent rural community was so different from anything I have known and she writes simply but evocatively. I hope she will write more.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is this a captivating and heart wrenching book to read for everyone, I believe it should be a must read for anyone who may be considering becoming a Paramedic or EMT. Each story tells the tale of real life calls in small town Northern California and the writer is taken into the homes of what a REAL 911 call is like, not what you see on TV. Marianne’s ability to bring the writer to the scene through her words is amazing. You can feel your senses awaken to the sights and smells of the small agriculture town as you read each chapter. The title really does the book justice as you will see by the end of the book how the stories stick with you long after you read them. This well written, emotional collection of stories is one that you won’t put down until you’ve reached the final chapter. I encourage every college teacher who is teaching young paramedics and EMTs to read this book, not to scare them away but to prepare them for what the real world of emergency response is like.

[Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Affecting true personal stories from a former paramedic when her job led her to respond to calls and find people in various states of life-threatening trauma: giving birth to a deformed infant in a toilet, shot by a boyfriend and dumped in a ditch, attempting suicide with a knife... (One hesitates to use the word "etc.", but it continues in that vein.) It's written like a medical television drama. It's not a book to "relax" with, but the stories are tightly written and do not go on excessively long, so it keeps you nicely stressed for a manageable amount of time.

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't get interested in this book.

[Kristen Compton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

It was an interesting book to read to learn about the life of a paramedic. I always enjoy learning about various jobs in the medical field.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a class and enjoyed Marianne's account of her experiences as a paramedic. She happens to be my instructor this semester.