WINNER OF THE NORTH STREET BOOK PRIZE COMPETITION Red Blood, Yellow Skin is the story of a young girl's survival in war-torn Vietnam during the First Indochina War between France and Vietnam, the civil war between North and South Vietnam, and the later American involvement in the Vietnam War. Linda Baer was born Nguyen Thi Loan, in the village of Tao Xa, Thai Binh Province, in North Vietnam in 1947. When she was four years old, the Viet Minh attacked her village and killed her father, leaving Loan and her mother to fend for themselves. Seeking escape from impoverishment, her mother married a rich and dominating widower who was cruel to his free-spirited and mischievous stepdaughter. Loan found solace in the company of animals and insects and escaped into the branches of trees. In 1954, her family chose to relocate to South Vietnam, rather than live under the yoke of communist North Vietnam. When Loan was thirteen, she ran away to Saigon to flee the cruelty of her stepfather and worked at menial jobs to help her family. At seventeen, she was introduced to bars, nightclubs, and Saigon Tea. At eighteen, she dated and lived with a young American airman.Two months after their baby was born, the airman returned to America, and Loan never heard from him again. She raised their son by herself. However, time healed her heart, and she eventually found true love in a young air force officer, whom she married and accompanied to America in 1971. Red Blood, Yellow Skin is a story of romance, culture, traditions, and family. It describes the pain, struggle, despair, and violence as Loan lived it. The story is hers, but it is also an account of Vietnam of those who were uprooted, displaced, brutalized, and left homeless. It is about this struggle to survive and her extraordinary triumph over adversity that Baer writes. Linda Baer was born Nguyen Thi Loan, in a small village in North Vietnam. Her family relocated to South Vietnam in 1954. She spent most of her youth in Saigon, where she met her husband. She followed him to America in 1971 and became an American citizen in 1973. She currently resides in Charleston, South Carolina, where she is a successful businesswoman.

Linda Loan Thi Baer was born Nguyen Thi Loan in 1947, in the small village of Tao Xa, Thai Binh, North Vietnam. Her father was killed during a Viet Minh attack in 1951. Her mother remarried a wealthy practitioner of Chinese medicine who was also a war widower. Their family relocated to South Vietnam during the mass exodus of 1954, where they were forced to move constantly due to economic, political, and military conditions. They eventually settled near Vung Rau, south of Saigon. Loan left home at the early age of thirteen to seek work at various menial jobs in Saigon to help her family and to escape the physical abuse of her stepfather. After she turned sixteen, she became a club dancer and a black-market dealer. She met and married an American Air Force officer in 1968 and later followed him to the United States. She was naturalized and became an American citizen in 1973. While raising two sons and a daughter, she obtained her GED and attended many college courses. Linda graduated first in her class at cosmetology school in 1982. She received her cosmetology license from the state of South Carolina. In 1986, she opened her own business, Linda B. Hair and Nail Salon. In 2015, the salon was renamed Elegance by Linda B. She still owns and operates it at the time of this book's publication. ​ Full of love, heartache, and humor, Linda's unique storytelling will have you laughing and crying, eager for more.

Individuals who donate their blood provide a unique and precious gift in an act of human solidarity. In order to donate blood, prospective donors should be in good health and free from any infections that can be transmitted through transfusion. Most blood donors perceive themselves to be healthy, but some are unsuitable to donate blood due to the potential risk of compromising or worsening their own health or the risk of transmission of infections to patients. Blood transfusion services (BTS) have a duty of care towards blood donors as well as to the recipients of transfusion. This duty of care extends to prospective donors who are deferred from donation--whether on a temporary or permanent basis--as well as those who donate blood and are subsequently found to have unusual or abnormal test results. BTS have a responsibility to confirm test results and provide information, counseling and support to enable these individuals to understand and respond to unexpected information about their health or risk status. Counseling is part of the spectrum of care that a BTS should be able to provide to blood donors--including referral to medical practitioners or specialist clinical services. Pre-donation counseling was recognized as one element of the strategy to reduce and, if possible, prevent the donation of blood by individuals who might be at risk for HIV and other TTI including hepatitis B and C viruses as well as to inform the donor of the donation process and testing of blood for HIV. Post-donation counseling was acknowledged to be a necessary element of donor management as an adjunct to informing donors of unusual or abnormal test results. Blood donor counseling by trained specialist staff is now considered to be a key component of the blood system in most countries with a well-developed blood transfusion service. It may be required at a number of stages in the blood donation process or following blood screening and should be available at any point at which the BTS has an interface with donors. In many countries, however, blood donor counseling is not yet available in a structured way. Blood Donor Counselling: Implementation Guidelines has therefore been developed to provide guidance to blood transfusion services that have not yet established donor counseling programs.

The initial hours after surgery are a critical time in the care of the surgical patient. Familiarity with the clinical presentation of perioperative complications is important to achieving optimal outcomes. By taking an approach to complications based upon signs and symptoms seen in the early post-operative period among adult patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery, this book aids the practitioner in the clinical management of surgical patients during the often turbulent hours after surgery. After a brief introduction to PACU organization, this manual discusses the common and most serious symptoms encountered in the post-operative patient, giving guidance on diagnosis of the underlying disorder and the treatment options available. The book also includes chapters dedicated to subspecialty patients, including patients requiring post-operative mechanical ventilation, pediatric patients, patients with implantable cardiac devices, morbidly obese patients and the complex pain patient. This practical manual is essential reading for all practitioners working in the PACU environment.