Wild Rescues: A Paramedic's Extreme Adventures in Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton

by Kevin Grange

Overview

Wild Rescues is a fast-paced, firsthand glimpse into the exciting lives of paramedics who work with the National Park Service: a unique brand of park rangers who respond to medical and traumatic emergencies in some of the most isolated and rugged parts of America. In 2014, Kevin Grange left his job as a paramedic in Los Angeles to work in a response area with 2.2 million acres: Yellowstone National Park. Seeking a break from city life and urban EMS, he wanted to experience pure nature, fulfill his dream of working for the National Park Service, and take a crash-course in wilderness medicine. Between calls, Grange reflects upon the democratic ideal of the National Park mission, the beauty of the land, and the many threats facing it. With visitation rising, budgets shrinking, and people loving our parks to death, he realized that—along with the health of his patients—he was also fighting for the life of “America’s Best Idea.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641602006
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/06/2021
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	359,732
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Kevin Grange is a firefighter paramedic in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He is the award-winning author of Lights and Sirens: The Education of a Paramedic and Beneath Blossom Rain: Discovering Bhutan on the Toughest Trek in the World. He has written for Journal of Emergency Medical Services, National Parks, Backpacker, Utne Reader, Yoga Journal, and the Orange County Register. He has worked as a park ranger and paramedic at Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Teton National Parks.

Table of Contents

Author's Note vii

Prologue: Return of Spontaneous Circulation ix

Part I Yellowstone

1 The Definition of Insanity 1

2 Land of Large Carnivores 11

3 The World's First National Park 19

4 Onboarding 25

5 A Call in the Wild 39

6 Alone on the Ambulance 53

7 Concessionaire Craziness 61

8 Bucket List 67

9 Job Security 77

10 Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health 83

11 Be on the Lookout 93

12 Sink or Swim 101

Part II Yosemite

13 The Other "Y" Park 113

14 Lug-Nut Rule 127

15 Thinking Outside the Box 135

16 Scope of Practice 151

17 Frequent Flyers 157

18 Meditation at Gunpoint 167

19 Somebody's Worst Day 177

20 You Can't Make This Stuff Up 187

21 Swiss Cheese and Silver Linings 195

Part III Grand Teton

22 The Wildland-Urban Interface 209

23 Good Medicine in Bad Places 227

24 Gone Too Soon 237

25 My Darkest Hour 243

26 Something for the Pain 249

27 The Call of the Summer 255

Epilogue: Wildfire 273

Acknowledgments 281

Editorial Reviews

“There are thousands of ways to die in the Great Outdoors, but an elite group of park rangers and paramedics mind the gap. One of them has finally brought us their riveting stories of rescue in this quick and interesting book full of drama and real-life heroism.” —Ben Montgomery, author of Grandma Gatewood’s Walk 
 


“Wild Rescues is a book you want to read, not be featured in. But if you did have the bad luck to be the subject of one of these entertaining and occasionally scary stories, you’d be eternally grateful for Kevin Grange and his fellow Rangers. A paramedic with more than a decade of experience rescuing people, Grange talks of tumbles, heart attacks, freak storms, wild animals, and suicides in the National Parks with the steady voice of one who’s seen it all, and then some. Whatever the emergency, specially trained National Park Rangers respond again and again in his pages, risking their necks to save lives. Written with a deep appreciation of the Wild and the awesome beauty of our National Parks, Wild Rescues lives up to its title. Armchair travelers will thrill to the hair-raising rescues, and seasoned trekkers will be reminded of the inherent dangers of their pastime. All will be grateful that people like Grange are on the job.” —Jim DeFelice, bestselling author of American Sniper 
 


“Kevin Grange details nearly everything that possibly could go wrong in a national park and yet still manages to make you more excited than ever to hit the trail.” —Conor Knighton, New York Times bestselling author of Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park 
 

“Writing at the intersection of medicine and adventure, Grange gives us a fascinating glimpse into rescues that would scare the pants off most of us. He writes with empathy, intelligence, humor and humanity. A captivating memoir. I couldn’t put it down.” —Kate Siber, correspondent for Outside magazine and author of National Parks of the USA 

“National parks bring together visitors accustomed to more controlled circumstances with heat, cold, cliffs, whitewater, wild animals, and thin air that challenges aging hearts. Anyone who suffers misfortune under these conditions can only hope that Kevin Grange is on duty. This man loves his job.” —Jordan Fisher Smith, author of Engineering Eden and Nature Noir 
 


“This is one helluva book. Grange somehow manages to combine the madness of life on an ambulance with the serenity and awe of America’s most beautiful places. Rangers, medics, tourists, adventurers (Alex Honnold makes a brief appearance), the fauna of Yellowstone—it’s all here. And you should be too. Wild Rescues is unlike anything you’ve read.” —Kevin Hazzard, author of A Thousand Naked Strangers 
 
 


“This book shares experiences, insights, learning from an experienced paramedic and wilderness rescue provider who tells it like it is about the challenges of patient care in remote environments, and the sometimes complex decisions that need to be made when 911 is not at your beck and call. There is honesty in the descriptions of team dynamics and the lives of those dedicated to serving others. And those who appreciate our national parks will take renewed pride at the dedication of those who care for those lands and those who visit them, the NPS rangers, who wear many hats—rescuer, resource caretaker, firefighter, visitor welcome, law enforcer—all to preserve this great American idea, our national parks.” —Tod Schimelpfenig, author of NOLS Wilderness First Aid  
 

From the Publisher