Frog: The secret diary of a paramedic

by Sally Gould

'A riveting ride along the knife edge of life and death from a frontline worker in one of our most crucial professions.' Fiona Kelly McGregor, author of Iris

'Frog', a term of endearment for intensive care paramedics, derives from the notion that everything they touch croaks. Sally Gould delivers a gripping and heartfelt memoir that dives into the unpredictable, often absurd, and sometimes heartbreaking reality of life as a paramedic.

Life as a paramedic, writes Sally Gould in this candid, witty memoir, can be traumatic, gross, dull, hilarious, magical. To make the cut, you need to be able to think outside the square, keep calm in the midst of chaos, be in possession of a strong stomach, and simply brush it off when patients die. That’s on top of having a profound understanding of the human body, plus the skills to counter its failings. It also helps to have a highly developed and oftentimes dark sense of humour. 

But behind the sirens and the life-or-death scenes, and the absurdity of non-urgent callouts, a paramedic’s career is very different to how most people imagine it. Based on years of meticulously kept journals, Frog is an intimate look at the human cost of the job and the cumulative effect of trauma. Sally shares a personal story that is searingly honest and truly inspiring, one which offers a heartfelt tribute to the resilience, courage and camaraderie that define the high-stakes world of emergency medicine.
 

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Audiobook, Medical, Biography, Autobiography, Medicine

29 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 30, 2025

Reviews

[❋ Booked Out Today ❋ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frog by Sally Gould
★★★★★

Frog is a gripping memoir by Sally Gould that reveals the unpredictable, often absurd, and emotionally taxing reality of life as an intensive care paramedic. Through honest reflection and dark humor, it offers a powerful tribute to the resilience, courage, and camaraderie behind the sirens and chaos of emergency medicine.

I listened to the audiobook and devoured it in a single day, only to find myself experiencing a déjà vu moment days later, as if I’d stepped into one of Sally’s vivid stories.

What truly stood out was the raw and honest turn when Sally shared her own personal struggles. As a fellow professional familiar with burnout and the deeper toll this work can take, I found her openness incredibly relatable. She approached every challenge with profound respect and a clear awareness that, ultimately, we’re all human.

This memoir is moving, heartfelt, and deeply motivating — a testament to the strength required to face the frontlines of emergency care.

🚑💉🩸🍷

💭 Who’s memoir has stuck with you to this day?

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[Sheree | Keeping Up With The Penguins · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s nothing groundbreaking or particularly surprising in Frog, but it's still fascinating, and as long as you’ve got a strong stomach for confronting content (including depression, suicide, and death), you’ll probably enjoy it as I did.

My full review of Frog is up now on Keeping Up With The Penguins.

[EmG ReadsDaily · Rating 5 out of 5]

An honest, reflective memoir that offers an interesting insight into the experiences of a paramedic.

I enjoyed the wry humour and the variety of absurd and emotional situations.

#NFPicknMixReadingChallenge

[heather | booksbyheath]

If i rated memoirs id give this 5 stars

[Chelsea Limpens · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Genuinely brought me out of my reading slump (Fuck you Tim Winton). Thought the first half was superrrrrr well paced and loved it but the end felt a lot more rushed and i definitely think she could have fleshed it out a lot more as a whole but she spoke about some really important and eye opening topics

[Lil Micki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible read I could not put down. Felt all the emotions with this book. Laughed, cried and heart felt so full. Enjoyed every story she shared in a language that’s down to earth, easy to read and not full of complex medical terms so great for us normies.

[Grace Vanderlaan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! Gives you a really good insight into the burnout healthcare workers often experience and how it creeps up on you, often without you realising until it’s impacting your day to day life.
Makes me want to be a paramedic. Big respect for them!

[Bronte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another non-fiction medical based memoir that I will be recommending to every person because it’s important to understand what healthcare workers deal with and maybe so you also understand constitutes what an emergency is.

And also now I want to be an ICP. Fuck.

[CJ Opal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished binge watching E.R., and I'm dying to get my hands on more high paced, adrenaline pumping medical drama. This wasn't quite that, but it is a wonderful memoir about a woman working her way up in a male dominated and often traumatizing field. Gould's dark sense of humor caught me off guard in a few spots, but her overall delivery is full of compassion for her patients as well as her fellow paramedics. Gould gives a highlight reel of some of her most impactful cases as she works her way up to becoming a specialized intensive care paramedic, and it was nice to learn with her as she sharpened her skills. It's quick , and it doesn't get too deep into medicine, which I had been hoping for more of. I'd recommend the audiobook, narrated by Gould herself. 3.5 stars, rounded up.

[Jessica Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sally is a highly qualified and experienced female Australian Paramedic. I looked forward to this book, as the few Paramedic memoirs I've read have been written by men. Her experience within the medical field is unsurprisingly fraught with unprofessional and inappropriate behaviour from male superiors. Obviously a workplace minefield not confined to Medicine.

I've given this book 3 stars, I found Sally's sheltered conservative Christian upbringing really impacted her limited life experience and treatment of patients. I found her highly judgemental and limited in her understanding of the breadth of humanity. I cannot claim to know how difficult, traumatising and exhausting Paramedicine is, but referring to patients as "junkies", criticising their weight or being culturally illiterate (in reference to the wailing woman in the Ambulance) irritated me to no end. I've no doubt I'd be infuriated with people if I were in her shoes, but I'm disappointed to hear such judgement from Sally. I'm sure 14 years later she's been exposed to more brutal and depressing circumstances than most could ever comprehend but I could've been spared closed minded and unworldly Christian conservatism.

[Bluebelle-the-Inquisitive (Catherine) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frog was such a win for what amounts to an impulse read, a book I came to knowing nothing about, I first saw it in a bookshop and bided my time in a library hold queue. I love Sally Gould's writing. She doesn't try to bring you into her world with her; she just shows snapshots of some of the most powerful of them. Sally is at times an absolute mood. She is just deeply relatable, even if her job isn't for the layperson. The anxiety about and dissecting of interviews. The depression. Oh God, the depression. I've never got as far as Sally did, but I definitely saw it in my future without the help I sought.

The idea of 'no day in the job is ever boring' is unparalleled by anything when you hear about what can happen in a single day in the life of a paramedic. Sally has met some wonderful people in her life. Not just her coworkers but some of the people she has treated, like Tim, a young man with Friedreich's ataxia living alone, it is quite a feat. All her coworkers have taught her lessons and have been lovely. Some of her stories are fun, like the accidental kidnapping of a hospital patient and the shopping centre incident. Some are more tragic or upsetting, like Nonna Albertina and Joyce. It runs the whole gamut as you would expect.

Possibly one of the more interesting memoirs I've listened to in a while. I like Sally's narration. Her stories are compelling. It's definitely worth listening to for everyone, but especially for those interested in pursuing a career in the ambulance service. Knowing an elderly person on the floor and can’t get up is known as a nanna down situation is funny to me, I’ve been the person making the call to the paramedics for that. Honestly, I found the book eye-opening as the stories are lessons for everyone in their own way.

I'm including this as part of PopSugar's 2025 Reading Challenge for prompt #14 "a book about non-traditional education". So much of Sally Gould's best education was on the job; her degree taught her core concepts. But the most valuable and frequently used in the long term is what she was taught by mentors and experiences with patients.

[Lauren D'Souza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely eat up books like this - narrative nonfiction that really teaches me something, written by an everyday person with deeply compelling stories to tell.

“Frog” is the Aussie nickname for paramedics (because everything they touch croaks, haha, get it…). Sally Gould has been a paramedic for over fourteen years, starting her training in her early 20s (!!) and treating crazy cases like someone getting run over and trapped under a train or someone getting spontaneously set on fire.

But more than just a recounting of wild scenes from the ambulance, Frog is about all the complexities of the job: the stress and pressure of making high-stakes decisions in thirty seconds; the challenges of being a young woman in a male-dominated field with persistent but quiet misogyny; the annoyance of countless 000 calls for hangovers or cuts and scrapes; the grief and necessitated numbness of seeing death on a daily basis; Gould’s own challenges with mental health and substance abuse; the funny dares that paramedics use to keep the job interesting (eg. 12 burgers from 12 different McDonald’s in one night shift…).

I noticed that this book was really well organized: there’s a great mix of entertaining cases, explanations of ambulance work and training, and Gould’s personal experience as a Frog, all told from Gould’s excellent, singular voice. Loved this one.

[Ashleigh Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such well written narrative nonfiction. I was hesitant picking this up, with similar books in the past being really negative and whingey, this read had none of that. I really enjoy reading and hearing the tales of frontline health care workers, especially when Australian. Humour balanced out some really heavy themes, keeping it a light hearted read whilst exploring some really important messages around mental health and burnout. Chapters 12 and 13 take you through Sally’s experience of hitting ground zero in her experience with depression. In some parts I felt like I was reading pages from my own journal, it left me feeling seen and validated in my own mental health experience.

[Jaclyn Brill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looooved listening to the insights of this hilarious, heart gripping, & intense memoir. Sally does a great job taking a reader into the life of a paramedic; describing all the harmonious & horrific situations one can witness. A rollercoaster for sure but ultimately a great read & honestly a good reminder to the public of what the medical personnel goes through all to help the lives of strangers. Thank you Libro.fm for the audiobook!!

[Larisa Tutera · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was such a great insight into what paramedics do/ how hard they train and their knowledge on almost everything. This was a fast paced, and really interesting book that I would recommend to anyone interested in the emergency services or just the health industry in general.

[Gillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

love this book for being an amazing depiction of burnout and compassion fatigue and also getting me to my yearly reading goal with hours to spare!!!

[Olivia Swindler · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoyed THIS IS GOING TO HURT, FROG will be for you. This is a reflective, at times funny, book about the life of a paramedic in Australia. I loved Sally’s story.

Thank you to libro.fm for my ALC.

[Lauren Belsito · Rating 5 out of 5]

I connected so much with this book. Finished in 2 days as I didn’t want to put it down.
I know Sally and it felt as if she was chatting me through this book it was so well written. To read of her personal struggles was moving, and emotional. Sally had me laughing, crying and even shocked at times. Recommend reading for a small insight into the daily life of a paramedic which she has managed to explain so well.

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Because despite all my training, it was the best thing I could do for her: alleviate her suffering and make room for dignity and comfort”.

This whole book felt like finding a fellow student on placement who was ramped at the same hospital as you, the immediate relief of finding that friendly face and 5 seconds on “normalcy” in the ever changing weeks of placement. I felt so seen by this book even though I have been in “the paramedic world” for only 0.25 seconds. I truly aspire to have the courage, strength and perseverance that Sally constantly showed in her practice towards her patients and to herself. I would also love to thank Sally for being so vulnerable and for opening door of conversation about how our identities can rely so heavily on our roles as healthcare professional; and the consequences that can occur to both our physical and mental well-being when we don’t treat ourselves with the self compassion that we so often deserve.

Lastly, I shall be raving about this book for years to come to everyone and anyone who will listen.

Thank you Sally for turning your secret diary into a book, it was the best book that has made me so very excited for the world of Paramedicine that I can’t wait to join. ❤️

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A honest and raw book. Sally doesn't hold back in the storytelling or her battle with depression. It still blows my mind some of the silly reasons people call an ambulance. And I totally get why you would have a rather grim sense of humour doing this job. Worse, I found some of it funny too! I wish she has elaborated on why she does kneel on carpet. And when she was talking about her depression and she said "Sleep is as close as I can get to death, without it being final". I really felt that.

[Ari Chand · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting diary-heavy memoir and autoethnographic lived experience insight into the slice of life of a paramedic and the way one might navigate such a complex job that requires so much from individuals. Lucky, she kept journals alongside all those case notes in order to write this. The diary-style entries plunge the reader straight into memories of chaotic scenes: overdoses, car crashes, the frailty of the body, domestic violence, mental health crises, and the quiet tragedies that never make headlines. She writes with blunt clipped frankness about the physical exhaustion, emotional burnout, and cumulative trauma that accompany years of exposure to human suffering and death.

I remember when Sally first got into studying this and always found her so driven to do this career, knowing how much you might have to move around and sacrifice time with friends and family. Even knowing some of the background and family context, there are new insights and raw honesty in the way she utilises both heavily descriptive scenes, but insightful realisations about this career path. I found it fascinating to read her experience. It’s structured as a series of episodic reflections rather than a linear life story; the book immerses the reader directly into the rhythm of paramedic shifts. Whilst not offering deep philosophical offerings on the meaning of life, reflections are much more matter of fact and some sections may feel repetitive, and the episodic structure can lack narrative momentum. It's a great read and you will gain respect for emergency workers while challenging the everyone to confront the realities of life behind the sirens and uniforms.

[Rhi Zar · Rating 5 out of 5]

So incredibly grateful for the opportunity to read this early. 💙

Frog delivers a unique and deeply personal insight into our emergency services, from learning on the job to teaching and leading others, Sally Gould takes the reader through her career one job at a time.
I appreciated the fairly descriptive but calmly reflected depictions of struggles with mental health - fair warning to those who find that hard to read, it does get heavy at times.

I have several family members in emergency services and even after all the stories I’ve heard from them I still learnt so much I didn’t know before from Frog!

Can’t wait for this brilliant book to launch in May ✨

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the inside look into being a paramedic! In school, my dream job was to be a paramedic, as my aunty is one and I was fascinated by her stories, but I did not get the grades to enter paramedicine (and I think that worked out for the better, I would not be able to stomach watching someone faeces come up through their mouth). Anyway, i loved Sally letting us into the day to day life of a paramedic and appreciated her candid approach to her mental health struggles.

[Amanda Renslow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for a good memoir, and this was one. I definitely could never do a job like Gould's, but it was so interesting hearing about her love for the profession and how she's grown as an individual and in her role.

Thanks to Libro.fm and their ALC program for the free listen.

[Cheyenne · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first read of 2026.
Informative yet had a sense of detachment which actually makes sense given the constant trauma experienced. A personal, insightful view into the life of an Australian paramedic.

[Trina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about a profession I know so little about; I'll seek out more job-based memoirs.

[Anne Paulson · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone curious about the work of a paramedic, this book is for you!

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. An excellent read and insight into such a rewarding but at times heartbreaking career.

[Chelsea Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Candid, authentic and fascinating read

[Rueben · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5