Riding the Lightning: A Year in the Life of a New York City Paramedic

The education of a New York City EMS worker, whose tales of tragedy and transcendence over a single year culminate in the greatest challenge the city's medical first responders have ever faced: COVID-19.

As a seasoned medical technician and union leader, Anthony Almojera thought he understood the toll of the job on first responders. They carried the traumas of the city, but also its triumphs, whenever a baby was born on a subway platform or an elderly man in cardiac arrest was brought back from the brink of death. So when a strange new virus began spreading in New York, Anthony thought that his life and training had prepared him for this new challenge. The months ahead would prove him wrong, and would test the strength of the entire EMS system: a critical thread in the fabric of the city, but one that quickly found itself at the breaking point.

Following one paramedic into hell and back, Riding the Lightning tells the story of New York City's darkest days through the eyes of one extraordinary medic and the New Yorkers he serves—and serves with: ordinary people who will continue to make New York an extraordinary place long after it has been reborn from the ashes of 2020.