A true account of going through UCLA’s famed Daniel Freeman Paramedic Program—and practicing emergency medicine on the streets of Los Angeles.

Nine months of tying tourniquets and pushing new medications, of IVs, chest compressions, and defibrillator shocks—that was Kevin Grange’s initiation into emergency medicine when, at age thirty-six, he enrolled in the “Harvard of paramedic schools”: UCLA’s Daniel Freeman Paramedic Program, long considered one of the best and most intense paramedic training programs in the world.

Few jobs can match the stress, trauma, and drama that a paramedic calls a typical day at the office, and few educational settings can match the pressure and competitiveness of paramedic school. Blending months of classroom instruction with ER rotations and a grueling field internship with the Los Angeles Fire Department, UCLA’s paramedic program is like a mix of boot camp and med school. It would turn out to be the hardest thing Grange had ever done—but also the most transformational and inspiring.

An in-depth look at the trials and tragedies that paramedic students experience daily, Lights and Sirens is ultimately about the best part of humanity—people working together to help save a human life. “An insightful and tumultuous virtual journey that reveals the challenging rites of passage needed to become a paramedic…You will be inspired.”—Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS, 17th Surgeon General of the United States
 
“An authentic, compelling narrative…Grange is an excellent writer.”—Peter Canning, author of Paramedic: On the Front Lines of Medicine

“As fast-paced and thrilling as a ride along in a speeding ambulance.”—Judy Melinek, M.D., co-author of Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies and the Making of a Medical Examiner
 
“Powerful…A raw, yet intimate view of the making of a paramedic.”— Paul A. Ruggieri, M.D., author of Confessions of a Surgeon and The Cost of Cutting