ambulance girl
Jane Stern
Questions for discussion:
Stern seems to find the experience of anonymity refreshing, even euphoric. Of her first day in a hospital emergency room, she writes, “I am just a spare pair of hands that day. I have no name, no authority…I am hooked.” Similarly, her strategy for getting through the terrifying experience of driving a fire truck for the first time is to tell herself, “I exist only in this moment. I have no history at all.” Why is this displacement of self so attractive to her? Do you see it as a form of denial or as a healthy—perhaps even necessary—release from self-absorption?
Stern’s encounter with her “first dead guy” drives home the inevitability of unanswerable questions in life. She wants to know why the man’s brother didn’t notice he was blue, why the brother suffers from a grotesque facial deformity, why the brother failed to call 911 earlier in the day. How does she deal with these questions? Do we identify with her reactions?
Why does Stern call duct tape “the operative semantic symbol of the dividing line between Fairfield County snooty and Fairfield County down-to-earth”? How does the disparity between New Canaan—where Stern takes her EMT training and “where the ambulance cot blankets look like the monogrammed coverings of show horses”—and Georgetown mirror the disparity between Stern’s pre-EMT and post-EMT lives? How do Stern’s friends react to her sudden decision to become an EMT?
How does Stern’s induction into the EMT world alter her perception of her hometown? Why does she note that “now when I stop at the service station my eyes are cast downward with humility”?
Stern’s moment of reckoning comes on a grounded airplane, where she is trapped for six hours with no food, no fresh air, and a clogged toilet. Discuss her statement, “I died the thousand deaths of a coward before the plane finally took off.” What allows her to recall in retrospect the one moment on the plane when she “didn’t feel like the whole world was collapsing”? How do you think Stern would react to being trapped for six hours on a grounded plane today?
The class about head injuries throws Stern completely off balance. What painful family memories does the session dredge up, and why does she remind herself, “It is important to know that there will not be anyone waiting under the window to kill me”? What simple gesture snaps her back to reality? Why?
As she volunteers at the low-tech, profoundly not scary Georgetown Haunted House on Halloween, Stern contemplates a lifetime of fear. She writes, “Knowledge replaces terror for me, and instead of being afraid I can now safely watch one of the Heibeck brothers’ young sons lying on a table, covered with raw chicken livers, screaming as if he is having live surgery performed on him.” In what way does this sum up the theme of Stern’s memoir?
When John, a beloved father figure to Stern and her husband, Michael, emerges from a two-week coma, he is brain damaged, partly paralyzed, and has lost all memory of his rich life. Stern is devastated to realize that, in certain circumstances, a successful EMT “save” is perhaps no more than a crass intervention in what might be a timely death. How does this realization affect her? How does it change the EMT work she performs in the following weeks?
about the author
JANE STERN
has coauthored thirty books about American culture and food with her husband, Michael Stern. Their books have appeared on the
New York Times
bestseller list. She also coauthors a monthly column for
Gourmet
magazine, which has won several James Beard Awards for writing. Jane Stern lives in Redding, Connecticut, with Michael, two horses, one dog, and one parrot.
By Jane and Michael Stern
AMAZING AMERICA
AMERICAN GOURMET
CHILI NATION
DOG EAT DOG
EAT YOUR WAY ACROSS THE U.S.A.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BAD TASTE
ELVIS WORLD
HAPPY TRAILS
JANE & MICHAEL STERN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POP CULTURE
REAL AMERICAN FOOD
ROADFOOD
SIXTIES PEOPLE
SQUARE MEALS
TRUCKER
TWO PUPPIES
WAY OUT WEST
Some of the names, locations, and details of events in this book have been
changed to protect the privacy of persons involved.
Copyright © 2003 by Jane Stern
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Three Rivers Press, New York, New York.
Member of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
www.crownpublishing.com
THREE RIVERS PRESS is a trademark and the Three Rivers Press colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stern, Jane.
Ambulance girl: how I saved myself by becoming an EMT / by Jane
Stern.
p. cm.
1. Stern, Jane. 2. Emergency medical technicians—Connecticut—
Biography. I. Title.
RA645.6.C8 S747 2003
616.02’5’092—dc21
2002014762
eISBN: 978-0-307-41977-4
v3.0