A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back

A former paramedic’s visceral, poignant, and mordantly funny account of a decade spent on Atlanta’s mean streets saving lives and connecting with the drama and occasional beauty that lies inside catastrophe.

In the aftermath of 9/11 Kevin Hazzard felt that something was missing from his life—his days were too safe, too routine. A failed salesman turned local reporter, he wanted to test himself, see how he might respond to pressure and danger. He signed up for emergency medical training and became, at age twenty-six, a newly minted EMT running calls in the worst sections of Atlanta. His life entered a different realm—one of blood, violence, and amazing grace.

Thoroughly intimidated at first and frequently terrified, he experienced on a nightly basis the adrenaline rush of walking into chaos. But in his downtime, Kevin reflected on how people’s facades drop away when catastrophe strikes. As his hours on the job piled up, he realized he was beginning to see into the truth of things. There is no pretense five beats into a chest compression, or in an alley next to a crack den, or on a dimly lit highway where cars have collided. Eventually, what had at first seemed impossible happened: Kevin acquired mastery. And in the process he was able to discern the professional differences between his freewheeling peers, what marked each—as he termed them—as “a tourist,” “true believer,” or “killer.”

Combining indelible scenes that remind us of life’s fragile beauty with laugh-out-loud moments that keep us smiling through the worst, A Thousand Naked Strangers is an absorbing read about one man’s journey of self-discovery—a trip that also teaches us about ourselves.

""A Thousand Naked Strangers" puts you in the front seat with Hazzard and a churn of motley partners as they respond to a series of wild calls - ones more tragic and horrifying, but also more comical, than can be imagined. Hazzard excels at the small yet unforgettable details: what appears in the tread of his shoe, what scatters onto the floor of his ambulance. You'll begin this journey as a guilty voyeur, seeing things you really shouldn't, but, by the end, be transformed into a respectful witness of a remarkable profession."
--Katrina Firlik, author of "Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside"

"I had no idea that paramedics might be even sicker than the people they're transporting! From one wild ride to the next, this insider's tale of what really happens in the back of an emergency ambulance is as absorbing as it is revealing. Gifted with a reporter's eye for detail and the wit and style of a bemused raconteur, Hazzard shows us what might happen if the medicos from 'M.A.S.H' were miraculously deposited on the set of 'Homicide: Life on the Street.'"
--Bob Drury, "New York Times" bestselling coauthor of "The Heart of Everything There Is" and "Last Men" "Out "

"Get ready to feel the gun-slinging, God-like power of running calls in the back of an ambulance. Here, you'll learn what medics already know: along with the vibrators, maggots, crackheads, homeless shelters, and booby traps, it's the madness that both wrings you out and is the job's biggest turn-on."
--Julie Holland, MD, author of "Weekends at Bellevue: Nine Years on the Night Shift at the Psych ER"

"Take a terrific writer and put him in tragic, frantic, emotional, heartbreaking and freaking situations for years - you get "A Thousand Naked Strangers. "Reading this book is like watching "The Matrix." Hazzard slows down the chaos and danger to allow himself (and the reader) to experience it. A paramedic's life is the closest thing to combat in the civilian world. To paraphrase a line in "The Bridge at Toki Ri," 'Where do we get these guys?' This book is one long rush."
--Phillip Jennings, author of "Nam-a-Rama "and "Goodbye Mexico"

"An unstoppable adrenaline rush with lyrical moments of truth and beauty. Hazzard's unforgettable portraits of people "in extremis," and the swaggering, sardonic, and ultimately courageous medics who take care of them, will stay with you long after you've turned the last page of this hell-for-leather ride-along."
--Theresa Brown, author of "Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between"

"A no-holds-barred look at what it's really like in the trenches. A paramedic's story of life and death and personal growth told from the back of an ambulance. Well worth the ride."
--Robert Lesslie, MD, author of "Miracles in the E.R.: Extraordinary Stories from a Doctor's Journal"""

"Hazzard's account of his decade-long, dread-and-adrenaline-drenched journey through Atlanta's underbelly rises above the river of suffering he depicts with excruciating unrestraint. He observes keenly, remembers faithfully, but also struggles to analyze his motives for loving those crazy nights on the bad side of town when the universe slips a gear and all hell breaks loose. "A Thousand Naked Strangers "is a brilliant delineation of what attracted him to the madness of his underpaid, under-appreciated paramedical work and why it ended." --J. Michael Lennon, author of the authorized biography "Norman Mailer: A Double Life"

"A shocking, utterly compelling tour de force that shows the dark heart of an Atlanta that I never knew existed. Mr. Hazzard tells about his ten-year career as an ambulance paramedic in a way that is both heart-stopping and heart-breaking. He writes in an elegant, low-key style, racing from crimes scenes to fatal accidents to the birthing of babies. I couldn't let the book go - it's powerful enough to have turned me into an ambulance chaser in my own small South Carolina town, but it's also very, very funny."
--Pat Conroy, "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Prince of Tides "and "The Great Santini"

""A Thousand Naked Strangers" is a voyeuristic ride-along with a seasoned paramedic. Kevin Hazzard has an eye for Atlanta's gritty detail - its true character and its true characters. Buckle up and prepare for an eye-opening plunge into barely controlled chaos."
--Judy Melinek, M.D., coauthor with T.J. Mitchell of the "New York Times "bestseller "Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner"

Hazzard s account of his decade-long, dread-and-adrenaline-drenched journey through Atlanta s underbelly rises above the river of suffering he depicts with excruciating unrestraint. He observes keenly, remembers faithfully, but also struggles to analyze his motives for loving those crazy nights on the bad side of town when the universe slips a gear and all hell breaks loose. "A Thousand Naked Strangers "is a brilliant delineation of what attracted him to the madness of his underpaid, under-appreciated paramedical work and why it ended. J. Michael Lennon, author of the authorized biography "Norman Mailer: A Double Life""