( 9 reviews )
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Posted: May 6 2009
I enjoy books about National Parks and the variety of work the Rangers are called upon to do. While the stories in this book are interesting, there's too much technical detail for a reader who is not a paramedic. Parts of this book read like an official report instead of a compelling rescue story for the lay person. I bought this book at Death Valley this spring when I saw it on the shelf in the bookstore at the visitor's center hoping it would be more like other ranger books I've read like Hey Ranger, National Park Ranger: An American Icon, or Seasonal Disorder: Ranger tales from Glacier National Park. Those books are written more like stories to be told and enjoyed rather than a training manual.
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Posted: Dec 28 2008
This an interesting book about the experiences of a police/paramedic/fireman ranger in the National Park system. Most of what she covers in the book happened in Grand Canyon National Park. There is one problem with the experiences she describes - there are no names and no dates. By no names I mean that she only uses first names such as Ranger Bob or Policeman Bill. I have the book "Over the Edge" about deaths in the Grand Canyon (which is very good and I highly recommend) and I tried to cross reference some of the incidents she describes, but it was practically impossible to do because of the lack of last names and dates. This was particularly fustrating because everything else she describes in detail (sometimes mind-numbing detail).
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Posted: May 23 2008
Nancy Eileen Muleady-Mecham is a "protection ranger" for the National Park Service. This job involves a variety of tasks - - a little police officer, a little firefighter, and a little paramedic, among others. She's clearly highly qualified in these areas, and this book tells a number of her experiences. Unfortunately, the paramedic stories dominate this collection. I say "unfortunately" because paramedics don't really see the human side of events. By the time the paramedic arrives, the story is mostly over, and the question is whether the paramedics can clean up the mess successfully. At that point, some of the people involved have become bodies, and most of the rest are "injuries" - - broken legs, heart attacks, or whatever. In a few stories, such as an MD who fell 45 feet off a cliff but stayed conscious and involved in her care throughout the rescue, we get a person. But those are the exception. Muleady-Mecham tells the stories in a matter-of-fact way, not unlike what the official reports would look like: "I checked for shock and then stabilized the broken leg," and so forth. It's not riveting, and at times it's surprisingly boring. I'll give it a generous three stars because I think the book would be very good for some people. If you're thinking of becoming an EMT, for example, this would give you a good sense of what your shifts will be like.
