Book Corner: May 2008

We kicked the month of May off in grand style up here in the mountains with two days of snow. Shoot, we set a new record for annual snowfall this winter in our section of Colorado, and the leading edge of our cold front collided with a warm front over the southeast resulting in Tornados that cost seven people their lives. Add to that the rapid snow melt in Maine and southeastern Canada resulting in flooding, and Boy Howdy! Spring has sprung with way too much job security for quite a few of us.

But all that pales in comparison to the folks in Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, who are still picking up the pieces from a cyclone.

Yes the busy season is on us as we prepare to kick off the 35th National EMS Week. (May 18 - 25)

According to Dr. Brian J. Zink's book ANYONE, ANYTHING, ANYTIME: A History of Emergency Medicine, the first National EMS Week was created by President Gerald Ford as a peace offering to the American College of Emergency Physicians, in 1974.

In 1973 the EMS Act was created and passed both the House and Senate by popular majority and was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. This occurred at a time of fiscal conservatism with an emphasis on reducing the national debt. The EMS Act was one of the very few new initiatives to pass both houses and actually survive to be funded and signed into law.

After President Nixon's resignation the reigns of power were taken over by President Gerald Ford, a fiscal conservative. President Ford, while recognizing the value of the EMS Act, in an attempt to balance the federal budget, vetoed appropriations to the Dept. of Health, Education & Welfare, HEW, that funded the programs created by the EMS Act.

Members of the relatively newly formed American College of Emergency Physicians, ACEP, rallied and lobbied Congress and to have the funds reinstated to the Federal Budget. The public and political groundswell of their efforts were so successful that President Ford gracefully accepted the override of his veto.

In acknowledgment of the popularity of modern EMS the president created the first National EMS.

This is just one of the many bits of history Dr. Zink shares in his historical look at the history of ACEP. From its inception by several doctors from various specialties who were all practicing early emergency medicine back in the days when every doctor, no matter what their specialty, had to take call in the ED. ANYONE, ANYTHING, ANYTIME documents a few visionaries who not only said there has to be a better way to come up with a consistent application of emergency medicine, but actually enjoyed it and wanted to develop a body of best practices.

From these early efforts by a handful of Docs from a half dozen cities, creating educational seminars, to the idea of forming standards and eventually creating a recognized specialty of emergency medicine, the efforts of four decades of work are painstakingly documented in Dr. Zink's account.

Make no mistake, this is not a thrilling page turner. No accounts of ED daring do or "There I was..." Tales from the ED. This is a dry historical work about the folks who created a large part of what comprises the art & practice of EMS, both in the field as well as the ED that we have today.

Is ANYONE, ANYTHING, ANYTIME a "must read" book about our brief modern history? Heck no! However it is a very thorough and concise account of how we got to where we are today. If you are interested in how we got here, then this is a book well worth tracking down.

ANYONE, ANYTHING, ANYTIME
Brian J. Zink, MD
Elsevier - Mosby, 2006
ISBN: 1-56053-710-8
$45.00 at Amazon.com

Radically switching writing styles is Dr. Heidi Kraft's memoir, RULE NUMBER TWO: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital. Lt. Comdr. Kraft was a Navy Psychologist deployed to Iraq. In January of 2004, Dr. Kraft was practicing as a staff psychologist in Pensacola, Florida. She was married to a Marine Corps Aviator and they were raising 15 month old twins when she was notified by her commanding officer that she was being deployed in 11 days to Iraq.