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A devastating, empathetic look at the opioid epidemic in the United
States, through the eyes of a paramedic on the front lines. [I] set
my cardiac monitor down by the young man's head. He is lifeless,
his face white with a blue tinge. I apply the defibrillator pads to
his hairless chest . . . A week from today, after the young man's
brain shows no signs of electrical activity, the medical staff will
take the breathing tube out, and with his family gathered by his
side, he will pass away at the age of twenty-three. When Peter
Canning started work as a paramedic on the streets of Hartford,
Connecticut, twenty-five years ago, he believed drug users were
victims only of their own character flaws. Although he took care of
them, he did not care for them. But as the overdoses escalated,
Canning began asking his patients how they had gotten started on
their perilous journeys. And while no two tales were the same,
their heartrending similarities changed Canning's view and moved
him to educate himself about the science of addiction. Armed with
that understanding, he began his fight against the stigmatization
of users. In Killing Season, we ride along with Canning through the
streets of Hartford as he tells stories of opioid overdose from a
street-level vantage point. A first responder to hundreds of
overdoses throughout the rise of America's epidemic, Canning has
seen the impact of prescription painkillers, heroin, and the deadly
synthetic opioid fentanyl firsthand. Bringing us into the room (or
the car, or the portable toilet) with the victims of this epidemic,
Canning explains how he came to favor harm reduction, which
advocates for needle exchange, community naloxone, and
safe-injection sites. Through the rapid-fire nature of one
paramedic's view of addiction and overdose, readers will come to
understand more than just the science and misguided policies behind
the opioid epidemic. They'll also share in Canning's developing
empathy. Stripping away the stigma of addiction through stories
that are hard-hitting, poignant, sad, confessional, funny, and
overall, human, Killing Season will change minds about the
epidemic, help obliterate stigma, and save lives.
TRUE LIFE-AND-DEATH DRAMA
In taut, thrilling prose, Peter Canning has written a book that captures the rarely seen real world of emergency medicine. A seasoned paramedic who fights under enormous pressure to save lives, Canning trains new paramedics for the rigors of a nonstop, action-packed battle. From a four-month-old baby who has stopped breathing to a sixty-seven-year-old woman with a strange abdominal mass that threatens to explode--these are gripping true stories from the "ER on the streets." An exciting, often moving account, Canning tells a powerful story of camaraderie, selflessness, and courage as paramedics try to stand tall and human through both defeat and victory.
Peter Canning shocked his family and friends when he gave up a
successful career as a speechwriter for the governor of Connecticut
to become a paramedic. Making his way through a rigorous training
period, overcoming his self-doubts and fear of making fatal
mistakes, Canning went from a life of privilege to the
life-and-death reality of the streets. In Paramedic, Canning
relives the nerve-racking seconds that can mean the difference
between a patient's death and survival, as he struggles - sometimes
in the face of a hostile crowd or the glare of TV cameras - to make
the right call, dispense the right medication, or keep a patient's
heart beating long enough to reach the hospital.
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