Following up on his well-received first book, Andy Thompson provides another captivating, thought-provoking, and at times intense glimpse into the daily life of a paramedic working in the UK's National Health Service. In the style of his first book, Andy recalls each event from the detailed documentation recorded at the time. Each account is written in a way that puts the listener right there next to him, so you live the events in real time. You'll hear the dialogue between paramedics, patients, their loved ones, and other health-care professionals as it would have been. You'll also share in Andy's thought processes during each of the 10 very different situations he encounters.

The term "the dark side" describes the frontline emergency aspect of the ambulance service, since paramedics frequently experience somber situations. In The Dark Side, Part 2, you will share in some truly traumatic, tragic, and tearful events involving a seemingly healthy young patient, a prison inmate, the victims of a horrific car crash, heart attacks, a frightening epileptic fit, the alarming effects of an allergic reaction, and what can happen when under-strain doctors prescribe the wrong medications. But there's still room for lighthearted moments and a taste of the sometimes dark humor that allows paramedics to continually deal with events most of us would find too horrific.

The detail in the descriptions of the care given to each patient on-scene by Andy and his colleagues will have you marveling at the ability of these health-care professionals to work at such speed of thought, buying enough time to deliver a patient into the specialist hands of hospital care. There are inevitably also those times when tears of hope turn to tears of despair for loved ones. You cannot feel that pain until it happens to you, but this book will bring you mighty close to it at times.