Warrior Nurse

I felt like a stranger in my own country, the raindrop was familiar, inviting, and felt like we were old friends.

At the 12th Evacuation Hospital Cu Chi, Vietnam, Sarah L. Blum is an operating room nurse during the fighting in the iron triangle in 1967. Mass casualties with severely wounded soldiers show up for Sarah, her fellow nurses, and the surgeons to treat in the midst of mortar attacks, monsoons, and exploding artillery.

Her story is intertwined with Johnny, hit by American artillery, and Jim, a baseball pitcher with multiple wounds including to his pitching hand. It encompasses her terror on the tarmac at Bien Hoa air base on the day she leaves, culture shock, emerging PTSD symptoms, assaults by protestors, being head nurse of the orthopedic ward at Madigan General Hospital, and her growing awareness of the effects of the war on her and her fellow soldiers.

Through it all, she learns the essentials to healing PTSD and shares some tools and adjuncts to therapy that ensure anyone with PTSD has the best healing outcome.

People and veterans with PTSD need to know someone has been through it and come out whole on the other side. They need to believe they can heal and be better than they are when in the throes of their symptoms. They need hope and guidance. Warrior Nurse: PTSD and Healing gives them both.