A Real Emergency: Stories from the Ambulance

Joanna Sokol’s life as a paramedic took her to three different counties: the casinos and trailer parks of the Nevada desert, the cozy beach town of Santa Cruz, and, eventually, the crowded tenements of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.There are no clear villains or heroes in Sokol’s world, only a group of patients and medics who are doing their best in a deeply broken system.  She tells many stories of that time in the new book, “A Real Emergency: Stories from the Ambulance.”