Church, Chicken, and Chest Pain: EMS in the South

Forty years in EMS. Thousands of calls. A lifetime of chaos, comedy, and sheer Southern absurdity—finally told the way it happened.In Church, Chicken, and Chest Pain, Dr. James Eubanks takes readers on a front‑seat ride through the unpredictable world of Emergency Medical Services in the American South. From midnight emergencies to Sunday‑morning chest pains in church, from frequent flyers to half‑naked meth‑heads, from chicken‑feather blizzards on the interstate to the infamous 3:00 a.m. “logic‑optional” calls—this book captures the funniest, strangest, and most unforgettable moments of a four‑decade career.These aren’t the trauma stories you see on TV or the dramatic rescues that win awards. These are the stories EMTs and paramedics tell each other at 3 a.m. in the station bay—the ones that keep them laughing, sane, connected, and surviving the job.With brutal honesty, Southern humor, and the kind of insight only experience can give, Dr. Eubanks pulls back the curtain on EMS culture:• the chaos• the camaraderie• the ridiculous calls• the unforgettable characters• and the coping mechanisms that help EMS providers through the long shifts.If you’ve worked in EMS, you’ll laugh because it’s true.If you haven’t, you’ll laugh because you won’t believe it’s true.And by the end, you’ll never look at church, fried chicken, Walmart, or 3:00 a.m. the same way again.Church, Chicken, and Chest Pain is a tribute to the humor, humanity, and sheer insanity of EMS—and to the people who keep showing up, shift after shift, to pick up the pieces of everyone else's emergencies. Read more