A Memoir · Meridian Press
He started with one ambulance and a belief that people in Orange County deserved better. Two decades later, the most famous company in America was on the line.
The Story
"In 1974, a young man climbed into the back of an ambulance for the first time. He thought he was just doing a job. He didn't know jobs could become callings."
In 1974, Michael Dimas began his career in emergency medical services in Southern California, riding rigs through the streets of Orange County when the entire field of pre-hospital care was still finding its footing. There were no national protocols, no standardized equipment, no guarantee that the crew showing up when you called would know more than basic first aid. Dimas decided that wasn't good enough.
Four years later, in 1978, he founded Medix Ambulance Service out of a small suite on West First Street in Tustin, California — a few miles from the towers of Disneyland, though that distance would eventually close in ways no one could have predicted. What started as a two-rig operation built on determination and borrowed money grew, over the next decade and a half, into one of Orange County's most sophisticated emergency services providers: Mobile Intensive Care Units, Advanced Cardiac Life Support teams, Neonatal Intensive Care Transportation, and regional Major Incident Disaster Response units that set the standard for the entire region.
Then came the call. A major entertainment destination in Anaheim needed the best medical response operation in Southern California. They had been watching Medix for years. The question wasn't whether Dimas could do the job. The question was whether he was ready for what saying yes would mean.
When Disney Came Calling is the story of what it takes to build something that matters — and what happens when the world finally notices.
The Archive
Advance Praise
A gripping, deeply human account of entrepreneurship in the most literal sense — the business of keeping people alive. Dimas writes with the clarity of someone who has spent decades making split-second decisions, and it shows on every page.
Dr. Patricia Weston Author of The First Hour
I've known a lot of people in EMS. Very few of them built what Michael Dimas built. This book captures not just a business success story, but the culture, the mission, and the impossible standards that made Medix what it was.
Marcus Webb Former Director, Orange County EMS Agency
Part entrepreneurial memoir, part love letter to the men and women who staff the rigs nobody appreciates until they need one. When Disney Came Calling is the kind of book that makes you look differently at every ambulance you see.
Publishers Weekly ★ Starred Review
From the Book
Chapter One
The dispatcher's voice crackled through the radio at 2:14 in the morning. Unit Seven, respond. Cardiac arrest, 4421 Palmetto Drive. I was twenty-four years old, less than a year out of training, and I was absolutely terrified.
What no one tells you about your first cardiac arrest call is how quiet it is when you arrive. The family is standing in the front yard in their pajamas, and everything has already gone wrong, and they are looking at you — you, specifically, this kid who barely shaves — as if you might be able to fix it.
I didn't fix it that night. But I learned something I've carried with me for fifty years: the people calling 911 in Orange County deserved more than we were giving them. They deserved equipment that worked. They deserved paramedics who trained constantly and took pride in what they did. They deserved a company that believed excellence wasn't a luxury — it was the baseline.
Four years later, I signed the papers for Medix Ambulance Service on a Tuesday morning in March. I had two rigs, six employees, and an office the size of a large bathroom at 661 West First Street in Tustin. My wife thought I was crazy. She wasn't wrong. But neither was I.
Available September 9, 2026
ISBN 978-1-7359-2847-3 · Meridian Press · 312 pages