Description
For more than thirty years, Marjorie Leigh Bomben has been a member of the Chicago Fire Department, starting her career as a candidate paramedic working on an ambulance in one of the city’s toughest neighborhoods. Now a paramedic field chief, Bomben looks back on thirty years of service in It’s Not the Trauma, It is the Drama.
The twenty true stories Bomben relates are unique—all told from the viewpoint of a woman rising through traditionally male ranks.
Bomben’s tales range from funny to gory, from the dangers paramedics face to the history of a venerable old firehouse. Some, of course, are about saving lives. Others are about simply staying alive.
From Bomben’s first trauma call—the results of a drag race along city streets gone horribly mistaken—to her eventual upward thrust throughout the ranks, her tales shift seamlessly from humorous encounters to descriptions of injuries human beings should not be ready to endure. Through it all, It’s Not the Trauma, It is the Drama offers a glimpse of the strain and risk experienced by Chicago Fire Department paramedics each day.