Chaos, sharp emotional intensity, and rare moments of harmony on the front lines of medicine.
A young man holds his breath in the restroom of a supermarket. A pedestrian with a serious head injury keeps the paramedic team away on a busy road. A newborn causes anxiety because it’s behaving far too quietly. A drug addict who didn’t get a dose urinates on the floor in the ambulance. These are the everyday realities of an emergency medical technician.
Jake Jones has worked for over ten years in the British ambulance service. Every day he becomes witness to a dozen scenes that we would never want to see. “Can you hear me?” is the first phrase he says upon arriving at the scene.