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    Blood, Sweat, & Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulance
    Blood, Sweat, & Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulance
    Blood, Sweat, & Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulance
    Ebook353 pages

    Blood, Sweat, & Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulance

    By Tom Reynolds

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A collection of true life stories from “one of the most gripping blogs around” recounting life as a paramedic for a British ambulance service. (The Guardian)

    Have you ever wondered what's going on inside the ambulance screaming past you during your rush-hour commute? Since 2003, Tom Reynolds (writing under an alias so as not to get sacked from his job), has kept a blog where he chronicles the day-in, day-out realities of his life on the job as an EMT with the London Ambulance Service. By turns both poignant and profound, Reynolds's writing captures the very essence of life and death. From the mundane to the surreal, from the heartwarming to the cynical, from the calm to the frenetic, more than 300 entries from his award-winning blog, Random Acts of Reality (randomreality.blogware.com) are included in the book. The tales are the stuff of Grey's Anatomy, House, and ER—only these events aren't unfolding on a Hollywood soundstage but on the front lines of a first responder’s real life.

    “An alluring mix of humor, bravery, cynicism, and compassion.” —London Daily Telegraph

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateApr 1, 2008
    ISBN9780740788970
    Blood, Sweat, & Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulance
    Author

    Tom Reynolds

    Tom Reynolds is a pseudonym for Brian Kellett, an Emergency Medical Technician for the London Ambulance Service.

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    Reviews for Blood, Sweat, & Tea

    3.5/5

    122 ratings19 reviews

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    • 5/5
      With the popularity of Blogs on the rise, and the critical success of recent books and movies adapted from online journals, the number of Blogs reprinted into book form is increasing steadily. The rush to fill any growing market usually dictates quantity over quality, and this can often make it difficult to find the exceptional materials mixed in among the shelf-fillers. Blood, Sweat & Tea is one of those few excellent translations from the Internet to the book shelf, and is well worth the search. The book launches straight into the daily diary entries from Tom Reynolds’ blog (randomreality.blogware.com/blog) without any real setup or introduction, and it is a credit to the clarity and honesty of his writing that this is not a setback to enjoying the book. No real explanation is needed beyond the blurb on the back cover.Blood, Sweat & Tea is a collection of daily online diary entries by Reynolds concerning his experiences as an emergency medical technician working for the London Ambulance Service in East London. Reynolds’ recaps of his time on the job clearly illustrate the ups and downs that go with such a demanding yet unappreciated vocation. He shares it all: humorous stories of false alarms and bizarre incidents, nerve-wracking brushes with the potential hazards of the job (such as the risk of exposure to HIV infected patients), frustrations concerning the politics and red tape behind the scenes of the medical services, and the emotional toll of dealing with life and death on a daily basis.Never overly preachy, snarky, or flippant, Blood, Sweat & Tea is a tour through the trenches of on-site medical response units in the UK that will entertain and inform any and all interested in the topic.
    • 3/5
      A blog made into a book.

      A run down of a London ambulance driver's typical day (or night). I always had a lot of respect for them--now even more so after reading how much they have to put up with day after day.
    • 4/5
      A great and interesting look at the work life of an ambulance driver in inner city London. The narrator is incredibly likable and his job is infinitely interesting. The people he meets and works with are all different. I loved the insiders look at what it is like to be an ambulance drivers.
    • 5/5
      Although I do not work for the NHS I found this a great insight into what they face each day and the sacrifices made often without thanks. I'm looking forward to reading the next one.
    • 3/5
      Taken from a blog, reads like a blog. No points for style, but intriguing if you like these kind of tales, good for dipping in & out of.
    • 3/5
      Blood, Sweat, and Tea is an interesting, quick read. In it, Tom Reynolds (a pseudonym) describes his time spent in the London Ambulance Service. The good: Tom is a funny, interesting writer. Whether he is ranting or describing a sad case, he is able to connect with the reader. After reading his entries, I feel like I have a much better understanding of the NHS and London culture as a whole.The bad: This books is basically a simple repackaging of Tom's blog, Random Acts of Reality. Some of the posts have brief introductions or comments, but really, very little is added. In a few annoying places, he refers to comments left on the blog, which he doesn't include. He also refers to other posts that he does not include. This can be frustrating. Also, the book is not organized in any way. It would be more helpful and satisfying if Tom used his blog posts as a starting point and then divided up the book into themes, perhaps with additional commentary or stories. As it is, I find this book hit or miss. You would get a more complete understanding of the LAS world by simply reading the blog.
    • 3/5
      This was quite an enjoyable quick read. I'm a regular blog reader, so I actively appreciate the format of blog entries, which made this easy to swallow. I'd never read this blog before, but I can see why it had/has? a huge readership. The writer is good at making readers see just how working as a emergency services worker is. And seeing as I know nothing about it, I thought it was a good introduction--and not too gory, either.I think there is something here, too, that is universal. Most people can instinctively understand normal work woes, and those are also presented here--office politics, as it were, in the ambulance bay. Who doesn't have to deal with that? It made the writer pretty likable. I'm definitely not unhappy that I spent time reading this book, and I'd recommend it to someone who likes blogs and/or medical-type reads.
    • 1/5
      Very boringly written, speeding along with very little description or detail. He uses a lot of abbreviation and I couldn't make sense of that. Stopped reading pretty soon. Shame, because the subject matter is highly interesting to me.
    • 5/5
      This book is an eye opener to how the emergency services conduct business. Humorous because doing this job you have to be. Cantankerous because doing this job you have to be. Tears of laughter and tears of sympathy. A first class read.
    • 4/5
      Excellent insight into the working life of a medical professional. Some of the stories are pretty unbelievable and, sorry, very entertaining. However, it is reassuring to know that at least one of our 'caring services' really do care. Well worth the read and very hard to put down.
    • 1/5
      another "commuter bus read"I tried to finish this book, but I couldn't. Perhaps I will try again at a later date. I have read blogs, and I have read journals/diaries. However, this is the first book based on a blog that I have read. This book was just too disjointed for me to get into. No flow whatsoever. I don't know if it is a result of the blog format or the author. Perhaps better selection of which blogs to include in the book might have helped. I got the feeling that some story lines/threads were missing some key parts. It did have some interesting and humorous bits, but just couldn't sustain.
    • 4/5
      Recommended by a friend, this was very much a random choice of reading material, and I am glad I chose it. It is a collection of blog-posts written by an employee of the London Ambulance Service. Through the posts, which are generally only a page or two long, the writer recounts regular, less regular, and rather irregular experiences he has had while on the job. Part of the reason I liked this book was the 'behind the scenes' look it gave at the ambulance service. If anything, it has reassured me that the Ambulance Service are dedicated people who know what they are doing, will help in the best way they can, and will, most of the time, provide an excellent service.On the flip-side, large parts of this book are also very scary, disturbing, and incredibly dark to someone like me. While told in a factual, non-tabloid, manner, stories from real life about dead babies, heart attacks and crying relatives are never pleasant to read. Of course, the book also has its share of light-heartedness, and stories with happy endings. Overall I guess the book paints a picture of reality, with all the shades that go along with that. The book is very well written, rarely gets repetitive, and often got my heart beating faster as I wondered what the outcome of a particular 'job' was going to be. If you think you might like a book with real stories from an employee in the ambulance service, you will really like this book. If you don't, you might not. Either way, with a bit of Googling it is available (legally) as a free ebook, so you might as well give it a try.
    • 4/5
      A collection of Brian Kellett's blog posts about being an ambulance technician for the London Ambulance Service. I've always found ambulance personnel admirable and finding out what a lot of crap they deal with (along with helping sick people) make me admire them even more. Very interesting and honest account of the job.
    • 5/5
      I received this book from the Early Reviewer's club. While this isn't a book I would normally select for myself to read, I am so happy I stumbled upon it. All I can say is what an interesting book! I really like how Mr. Reynolds included a variety of blogs throughout the book. The content ranged from sad, to depressing, to informative, to just plain hilarious. Mr. Reynolds has a fantastic sense of humor, which makes the book highly entertaining.
    • 3/5
      It is good if you read the blog. Easy enough to pick up and put down.
    • 5/5
      This seems to be a new phenomena. Transcribing blogs so that they get a wider audience. This is not a bad thing. This is the EMT part of Tom Reynold's Blog. Much of it is the sort of things people are gagging to hear in a pub when someone reveals that they work in the Ambulance service. It's full of humour (he is an equal opportunities bigot, he hates every equally) and pathos (Victims brought me to tears) and it really made me think about the Ambulance service. I subscribed to his blog almost immediately, his rants have the ability to make to sit back and take notice.Well worth reading, even if it's something you don't do or you're squeamish. Yes there are gory parts, but that's life.
    • 3/5
      Really interesting read that gives an insight into the life of an inner-city ambulance driver. I think the posts aren't completely linear as they seem to refer to things that happened in the first half of the book as if it were yesterday. So at some points it feels a bit disjointed.
    • 4/5
      A fascinating look at the front line of the UK's emergency care.
    • 4/5
      Blood, Sweat, and Tea by Tom Reynolds (a pseudonym - the author's real name is Brian Kellet) is a collection of entries from his Blog, Random Acts of Reality.. In some cases, he has added additional comments that bring home his point or provide a little "what happened next."This was an enjoyable book, a fairly fast read. It was actually nice to learn that a London ambulance driver's patients are much the same as pretty much any patient I've encountered here in the US as a nurse - which is to say, I guess, that they're all human and subject to the same fears and frailties. This is a very good blog, but I wish there had been more than that to the book. Mr Reynolds would have done well to re-organize these posts into chapters, each of which told a story or underscored the points he wanted to make. As is, it's a hodgepodge of experiences that may accurately reflect his day-to-day job but that do not accurately reflect the nature of his work. It is clear that Mr Reynolds is both witty and kind. He insists that he is a misanthrope, but his actions speak louder than his words. He claims repeatedly that he "hates everyone equally," but all of his patients get the care that they need and deserve. It's nice to know we have men like him out there.

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    Blood, Sweat, & Tea - Tom Reynolds

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