"Excellent…Tucker’s chronicle of the world of 17th-century science in London and Paris is fascinating." —The Economist In December 1667, maverick physician Jean Denis transfused calf’s blood into one of Paris’s most notorious madmen. Days later, the madman was dead and Denis was framed for murder. A riveting exposé of the fierce debates, deadly politics, and cutthroat rivalries behind the first transfusion experiments, Blood Work takes us from dissection rooms in palaces to the streets of Paris, providing an unforgettable portrait of an era that wrestled with the same questions about morality and experimentation that haunt medical science today.
"Ex-FBI profiler Terry McCaleb called his old job of hunting down serial killers 'blood work'. Nowadays the only blood work he cares about is for his heart transplant. Eight weeks ago he was dead; now someone else's heart keeps him alive. Then Terry is informed that the anonymous donor of his heart was a murder victim and remains the focus of a stalled police investigation. Unable to ignore evil, even if it means risking his new life, McCaleb is inexorably drawn to help close the case. But someone is watching his every move--someone who has killed before and will kill again . . ."--Back cover.
A standard blood test indicates how well the kidneys and liver are functioning, the potential for heart disease, and a host of other vital health markers. Unfortunately, most of us cannot decipher these results ourselves, nor can we even formulate the right questions to ask about them—or we couldn’t until now. In Your Blood Never Lies, best-selling author James LaValle clears up the mystery surrounding blood test results. In simple language, he explains all of the information found on these forms, making it understandable and accessible. This means that you can look at the results yourself and know the significance of each marker. Dr. LaValle even recommends the most effective conventional and complementary treatments for dealing with any problematic findings. Rounding out the book are the names of test markers that should be requested for a more complete physical picture. A blood test can reveal so much about your body, but only if you can interpret the results. Your Blood Never Lies provides the up-to-date information you need to take control of your health.
"Blood transfusion is a life-saving intervention that has an essential role in patient management within health care systems. All Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed World Health Assembly resolutions WHA28.72 (1) in 1975 and WHA58.13 (2) in 2005. These commit them to the provision of adequate supplies of safe blood and blood products that are accessible to all patients who require transfusion either to save their lives or promote their continuing or improving health." --Preface.
Phlebotomy uses large, hollow needles to remove blood specimens for lab testing or blood donation. Each step in the process carries risks - both for patients and health workers. Patients may be bruised. Health workers may receive needle-stick injuries. Both can become infected with bloodborne organisms such as hepatitis B, HIV, syphilis or malaria. Moreover, each step affects the quality of the specimen and the diagnosis. A contaminated specimen will produce a misdiagnosis. Clerical errors can prove fatal. The new WHO guidelines provide recommended steps for safe phlebotomy and reiterate accepted principles for drawing, collecting blood and transporting blood to laboratories/blood banks.
What is blood? How can we account for its enormous range of meanings and its extraordinary symbolic power? In Blood Work Janet Carsten traces the multiple meanings of blood as it moves from donors to labs, hospitals, and patients in Penang, Malaysia. She tells the stories of blood donors, their varied motivations, and the paperwork, payment, and other bureaucratic processes involved in blood donation, tracking the interpersonal relations between lab staff and revealing how their work with blood reflects the social, cultural, and political dynamics of modern Malaysia. Carsten follows hospital workers into factories and community halls on blood drives and brings readers into the operating theater as a machine circulates a bypass patient's blood. Throughout, she foregrounds blood's symbolic power, uncovering the processes that make the hospital, the blood bank, the lab, and science itself work. In this way, blood becomes a privileged lens for understanding the entanglements of modern life.
Much has been published on heart health, kidney health, and gut health. But how many of us are aware of our blood health? Is your blood as healthy as it should be? How would you even know? Blood Works is a fascinating new blood owners’ guide to help you care for the health of your most precious fluid—your blood. About 2 billion people globally are anemic, and almost as many suffer from iron deficiency without anemia. Many don’t even know they have it, just feeling tired, lethargic, and “foggy-headed.” Sound familiar? Over 600 million more suffer from acute or sometimes unrecognized chronic blood loss from causes such as heavy menstrual bleeding, obstetric hemorrhage, gastrointestinal bleeding, surgery, and trauma. Anemia, iron deficiency, and bleeding are signs of “blood failure” and have major negative health effects. Blood Works, with contributions from 48 leading international medical experts, is a must have book for all who want to look after their blood health. Your blood is the essential fluid that keeps you alive. Yet, while many of us know our cholesterol level and blood pressure, few of us are aware of our blood count. What we don’t know can affect our everyday quality of life and put us at risk if we have bleeding, an injury, or require hospitalization. Blood, and the vessels that contain it, make up the largest organ system in the body. Its balance and health must be maintained. For many decades, the treatment of first resort for anemia and blood loss has been blood transfusion, which is essentially a “liquid organ” transplant from another person. In heart failure or kidney failure, organ transplantation is not first-line treatment. In blood failure, blood “transplantation” should not be the first thing we reach for. Since the 1990s, scientific research has shown that the common use of blood transfusion is not the most effective treatment in many medical situations. It has been identified as one of the most overused treatments in modern medicine, costing billions of dollars, while causing changes in the recipient’s immune system that may increase the risk of complications and death. In October 2021, the World Health Organization called for the urgent global implementation of Patient Blood Management (PBM), stating “our own blood is still the best thing to have in our veins.” Blood Works is one of the most exciting books on blood health you will read. The book zooms in on why medical experts from around the world now recognize the need for fundamental change in the way a patient’s blood is managed. Known as PBM, Patient Blood Management places the person receiving treatment at the center of decisions involving their lifeblood. Its aim is to improve general health and treatment outcomes by managing and preserving a patient’s own blood while empowering them to share in making decisions. Meticulously researched and referenced, masterfully illustrated, and featuring personal stories from patients and their families, Blood Works is a compelling read. It will have a profound impact on your health and the health of your loved ones and is an invaluable resource for health care professionals.
This book was originally written after feedback suggested that storytelling was very helpful to students and practitioners wanting to remember blood tests and their implications. Each section, where appropriate, therefore contains a ‘story’, as well as an overview of the relevant anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. This revised, updated edition continues to use storytelling to aid understanding, and introduces a unique 10-point system to help explain blood results. The use of storytelling has also been significantly improved and refined, following several years of feedback on the first edition. Less formal than a biochemistry textbook and containing more narrative than an online protocol, Blood Results in Clinical Practice provides an excellent, accessible introduction to blood tests and what they mean. It also enables advanced practitioners to reflect on and improve their practice; and includes new and updated sections of relevance to physiotherapists, paramedics, pharmacists and advanced nurse practitioners. Finally, it provides a resource for patients and their relatives who may be keen to know more about the meaning and function of particular blood tests.
The new WHO guidelines provide recommended steps for safe phlebotomy and reiterate accepted principles for drawing, collecting blood and transporting blood to laboratories/blood banks. The main areas covered by the toolkit are: 1. bloodborne pathogens transmitted through unsafe injection practices;2. relevant elements of standard precautions and associated barrier protection;3. best injection and related infection prevention and control practices;4. occupational risk factors and their management.
