 The 24-hour-a-day routine of the people who work for the Sofia Emergency Assistance Service is beyond banal: bleeding victims of violence, drug-addicts in a coma, suicides, run-over pedestrians, babies gone numb with cold from exposure, lonely victims of heart attacks or strokes. The unusual thing, however, is that in this environment, laughter is often heard - the bitter laughter of some of the lowest paid servants of Hippocrates.