Addicted to Life & Death: Memoirs of an EMT and Deputy Coroner

by Janice Ballenger

Make sure to check out masthof.com for other great books like this one! When Janice Ballenger joined a volunteer rescue company, she began keeping a journal, and clipping news articles about the calls she responded to. Now, as an EMT and deputy coroner, she has seen, smelled and touched things most people have difficulty just hearing about. With the thought of "There's nothing worse that I can see", she continued her job. The Nickel Mines Amish School shootings in October 2006, changed that, when a milk truck driver shot ten Amish girls, and killed himself. Read her story as one of the few people who entered the schoolhouse with the bodies inside.

296 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 2008

Reviews

[Susanna Mahoney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I as a reader and reviewer of book,s I was shock to come here and see a one star for this book. I have listened to Janice Ballenger on blog radio shows and she will be on www.trianglevarietyradio.com, whichs airs Thursday, 4/25/13, tonight at 8m pm eastern. She is a dedicated professional who works in a difficult and messy career as a EMT and Deputy Coroner. She has experience of many gruesome incidents, with crime and murder scenes. I studied to be an EMT and remember when I and my friends were call to an emergency crisis and had to react quickly to triage the victims. To express sympathy for the survivors, it is heart wrenching to be in that position. She has many years of this and much more.

She is warm, compassionate and knowledgeable. I review her book on Amazon, it is written with compassionate, surreal details and maybe too sensitive for some. She took her experiences instead of becoming cynical, she wrote as therapy and in some ways to help the survivors survive the darkness that some evil intent persons can inflict upon the innocent.

It is a journal of her experiences and emotional views about the career she chose to served in. And has some historical,details some would like to forget, but she was a champ and wrote the anguish into stories that will help others to see the darkness, Also there is a light at the end of the tunnel, healing for her and the survivors. She was a trooper and wrote about a taboo subject yet she also did not forget the departed, and wrote with respect, that to me as a reader,she attained her objective. I believes an author who can walk in the evil and still survive to bring hope to others, should be respected and her book is an extension of her.

Come tonight and listen for yourself, she is an amazing person, woman and service provider to many. Come and give her support and do not let the darkness win.

[Daniel Mast · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great description of the trials and blessing of service as an EMT. Great for people wanting to learn about emergency services as well as season EMS veterans. Janice accurately describes the stress that the job brings.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a special lady is Janice Ballenger! She is a VOLUNTEER Deputy Coroner and EMT. She has seen many tragedies and has the emotional scars to prove it. This book tells some of the things she has witnessed including the murder of 5 Amish girls in their school. Janice takes us through her fight to be able to live with the horror she sees and keep sane.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting.

[Loretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms. Ballenger writes about her experiences as an EMT and Coroner. I overlooked some places that needed editing and focused on what she was sharing about her experiences especially the Amish school shooting in Lancaster Country 2006. I can't even imagine what she felt, although she tried to explain, when she went to the scene of the one-room schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, PA. For those who don't know about this horrendous event; dairy driver, Charles Roberts, nursing a 20-year grudge, shot 11 children, killing five. He demanded all the males from children to adults to leave and lined the females up to execute them. He then killed himself.

I recommend this book to help understand what EMT's and Coroners deal with.

[Phillip Mast · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm somewhat drawn to this book since I like EMT stories and it's even better when they are so local. However, the book is poorly written. There are so many tiny stories lined one after the other and she has a habit of introducing new scenes with grammatically incorrect "sentences."