Blood, Sweat, & Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulance

Blood, Sweat and Tea is a book based on the blog "Random Acts of Reality" by a London, UK, based emergency medical technician (EMT), Tom Reynolds (a pseudonym, Tom has now revealed himself to be Brian Kellett). I'm an occasional visitor to Reynold's blog and always found him to be interesting, honest and well worth reading. This first book (there is now a second book called  More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea ) is a collection of some of Reynolds favourite posts from his blog, published in 2006.While it is obviously a book of blog postings, it does hang together as a coherent collection and is very readable. I could spend much longer reading his posts in this format than I could spend reading a screen for.His posts are not sugar-coated and show what life is like in the ambulance service. If I was Reynolds I would be very frustrated in having to put up with the non-emergency 999 calls that waste the time of already busy EMTs. He also talks touchingly about some of the tragic calls that he also is involved with.All-in-all a very interesting read - everyone should read a copy, especially those people who call 999 when they should be visiting their GP or taking themselves to A&E!

this is a collection of blog posts from an EMT in the London Ambulance service. It really captures what it is like to be on the front line of the NHS. At times its funny, at times it is heart breaking but never boring. Because of its format it is the sort of book you can dip in and out of and it holds pride of place in my toilet library! i bought it many years ago in book form so i was thrilled to get it for free for my Kindle. If you like this one don't forget the follow up  More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea  is also free for the Kindle.

This was an interesting read. It is missing the soap opera of Grey's Anatomy and the evil trial and error of House, but it is a read that will give you a peek into the life of an ambulance attendant in London. I am sure it isn't too different here in the states. It is based on a blog:[...]I think this would make a great TV series. Now I am off to read the next, More Blood, etc.

In its original version as a blog on the internet, I'm sure, this story must have been interesting. As a book (e-book in my case), reading it is a tad boring. Not that I didn't enjoy it - I found it quite likeable. But I believe one should have the discipline to never read more than a couple of chapters per day in order to maintain the blog-reading feel.A fine way to pass time, but nothing I would desperately want to have. Still enjoyable though!

I'm sorry but this book is just plain boring. It's just some guy rambling on about nothing. The title makes the book sound interesting, like your going to hear about all this crazy stuff paramedics see on inner-city streets but that is just not the case. The author will begin to talk about some call he went on and it will sound interesting but then he gives no real detail to what happened. He should have talked more about specific interventions done for his patients, or given more insight into the feelings he had from such calls. This book just falls flat, Canning's books are a lot better and even Michael Perry's book is good.

I find this book very informative, it is an excellent insight into inner city life. The bonas is that it gives one a good laugh from time to time.

Keep writing Tom!Not only was it a real life look at ambulance service in Lindon to include the NHS. It was an accurate look at what EMTs think about their job and their patients. This should be read by anyone involved in modifying U.S. health care so we don't make the same mistakes Britain did.So Tom, when is the sequel coming out.

Funny and insightful. Made me laugh and brought tears to my eyes. Well worth the cost and the time. I highly recommend this book.

I've been wanting to read this book for years. It was the basis for one of my favourite TV shows of all time (Channel 4's Sirens), and also one of my guilty pleasures (the bawdy US version) and I'd been meaning to pick the book up ever since I got addicted to the adaptations. I never quite got around to it, though. What can I say? I'm stingy.You can imagine, then, that when I was trawling Amazon for free e-books to make up the figures on my Goodreads 2015 Reading Challenge and saw that this particular book was among them, I was somewhat excited.In hindsight, I probably went into it with my expectations raised too high. Simply put, this book just doesn't match up to what I was hoping for.Firstly, it's based on a blog, which is fine. I knew that. However, I hadn't expected that it would literally just be copied and pasted from the blog, spelling and grammatical errors included. If I'm reading a blog, then I can deal with people using 'it's' where they mean 'its'. If I'm reading a book, however, then I expect some discerning editor to make the reading experience a little more fluid. It's just damn jarring to try and work around obvious mistakes.Secondly, the constant repetition of the phrase 'I'm not racist, but ...' and 'I'm not racist - I hate everyone equally!' made me particularly glad that the writers of the TV adaptations had clearly not based their protagonists on the author of this book. He sounds like the kind of guy you'd see at a party and would lead you to beg your friend to please, dear god, let you sit at the other end of the table.It really isn't all bad. There are some genuinely hilarious bits, as well as some actual human emotion, and I don't regret reading it. I'm just very glad that it was free.

I should start off by pointing out that this book is basically a collection of blog posts from the blog 'Random Acts of Reality' which is no longer updated as the author no longer works for the ambulance service full time and has moved onto other things.As you can probably tell from the rating, this is one of those books I truly enjoyed. Ok, I read it over a couple of weeks during the breaks between lectures when I had nothing better to do but just because I didn't get so sucked in I couldn't put the book down it doesn't mean this book wasn't gripping. The blog post type format made it easy to find a place to stop as the stories weren't really related so you're not compelled to turn the page to find out about what happened to the person you were just reading about.This one can get a bit depressing at times, nobody thinks reading about sick children and dying patients is fun and games but there's enough humour (sometimes quite dark humour) to offset this. Oh, and reading about some of the reasons people call out the emergency services can make you lose a little bit of faith in humanity (I don't seem to be conveying how much I enjoyed the book very well here) but all those moments are worth it just to read the descriptions of traffic dodging and the weird panicky things people seem to do when they hear a siren.

This book is an anthology of blogs taken from the author's website. Tom Reynolds is the pseudonym of a paramedic working for the London Ambulance Service. The blog entries are accounts of some of his more memorable jobs and shifts which he has experienced thus far in his career.Tom writes his blogs not as a spokesman for the LAS, but as an individual thrust into some very demanding and often quite emotionally challenging situations. He voices his own opinions, thought processes, likes/dislikes and is therefore likely to offend those holding opposite ideals. It is therefore necessary to begin this book with the understanding that it is biased, flawed but totally human. That for me, made this book completely readable; I may not agree with some of his opinions and beliefs, but it was so refreshing to read a book written by an individual who refuses to toe the line of political correctness.His jobs range from maternities, to drunks, stabbings to the terrorist attacks in London and give an overview of the nature of the work that he is tasked with on a daily basis whilst working within Newham, London. The blogs are relatively short and can therefore be swiftly read.If you're looking for a book which gives a fascinating insight into the life of an operational paramedic, then this is ideal. Just remember that Tom Reynolds is an author who likes to speak his mind and may therefore offend!

Tom Reynolds is the pseudonym for a London Ambulance Service (LAS) driver and emergency technician. One of the guys in green who rush out to answer 999 calls in London.This is taken from his blog, first published in book for a few years ago, and this is the updated version. Reynolds shares with us his daily blog and what happens to him on a daily basis and very much opens a window onto a part of life we probably don't see much of and don't understand. In the LAS no two days are the same, so we have tales that will frustrate you, make you sad, make you laugh, make you angry - the whole range of emotion and experience seen through a yellow and green vehicle with blue flashing lights.You will admire the operatives of the LAS a lot more for reading this, an underpaid and undervalued essential service. There are other aspects of the NHS that you will admire a lot less for reading this and you feel that Ministers and NHS managers would benefit from reading the view from the front line. Reynolds has his own style and it's simplicity and honesty is what makes this so 'real'.This is great stuff, both entertaining and interesting. If I am ever in need of an ambulance on London, I hope Tom Reynolds is behind the wheel, but I also hope he makes a stack of money from this book, he deserves it.

This book had me laughing out loud on many busses. I applied to a Russel group medical school and they asked me 'Tell us a book you mentioned recently that shifted you perspective on the human condition' ... I talked about this book and focused on humanity's need to 'serve themselves first', before others. The interviews loved the answer because I was able to draw on the comedy that was paramount in this book, while showing thatt I engage in rider reading around my area of interest (medicine) and although I have aspirations to become a surgeon, I am curious about the perspective of other healthcare professionals.This isn't on those 'med-school applicants - recommended reading' lists, so not many young people would mention this book.But apart from aiding my ability to impress the professors/doctors, I thoroughly enjoyed the sarcastic humour of this book. The only reason I'm not giving this 5 starts is because I don't believe in creative perfection.And I know you want to know -- The medical shcool, offered me a place!