101 Dumb Emergency Calls
Monday, 10 February, 2014
Paramedic's new book dials into the world's most stupid & shockingly unbelievable emergency calls.
Written and illustrated by a duo of paramedics, '101 Dumb Emergency Calls' exposes some of the most unfathomable and irrelevant calls received by emergency departments around the world. Whilst many are whimsical and outright hilarious, the book draws bold attention to just how much abuse emergency services are forced to endure.
Having become victim to dozens of these during his long career, Paramedic Stuart Gray highlights the extent of the problem in this entertaining new book.
Mostly from the USA and UK, 101 Dumb Emergency Calls is a collation of the most stupid and irrelevant calls to the emergency services that have been highlighted in the media in recent times. Bringing into sharp focus the extent of the abuse of our critical life-saving services.
With cartoons to depict calls and hyperlinks to take the reader to the original audio (some of them released in the public domain by the police and ambulance services in order to show the world how badly a minority of individuals will misuse valuable resources), this book promises to amuse and shock every right-minded person who understands what these services are here for.
The author and illustrator are professional front line paramedics, so they know a thing or two about the subject; and from calls to the police for directions to 999 rants about the lack of buses, they have experienced their fair share of such stupidity.
You won't believe some of the calls that have been made in the name of personal crisis. You simply won't believe what some people think is an emergency! Even though the book takes a light-hearted tone, Gray hopes it draws attention to just how much abuse the emergency response system puts up with.
"Everyone knows the mantra - each time a hoax or irrelevant call is placed to the emergency services, someone who really needs help could be denied it. As most people have never made a hoax call, this is almost hard to believe. However, my book exposes the extent of the problem - it really is quite unbelievable!" he says.
About the Author:
Stuart was born in Scotland and grew up in a small town called Barrhead, near Glasgow. He currently lives in Hertfordshire and is married with two children. He moved to London in the 1980's to pursue a career in the music business; he was a songwriter, singer and musician. He did well for 12 years in that business but eventually, as time and circumstances changed him, Stuart moved into pre-hospital care. He did his degree in Paramedic Science and is now a professional frontline ambulance paramedic, working in Central London.
His blog 'A Paramedic's Diary' is read all over the world and was recently featured in the Times Newspaper Top 50 Blogs that really matter. This inspired him to write books. First from the blog itself: 'A Paramedic's Diary; Life and Death on The Streets', then about the profession and how to survive it: 'The Street Medic's Survival Guide' and his first ever novel, 'The Station', which is a fictional look at his profession. Stuart loves to write and hopes to continue writing more stories from 'The Station' in the future.
