By U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Carolanne Diggs
Multinational Force-Iraq |
ABU GHRAIB, Iraq, Dec. 7, 2005 — Four-month-old Tabark Abdul Rahman, known as Tabitha to the Abu Ghraib medical staff, was given a grim prognosis on life.
When she arrived at the Abu Ghraib hospital she was malnourished, dehydrated, in renal (kidney) distress, was suffering from diarrhea and had a bad cough. X-rays showed she had pneumonia. After two months in and out of Baghdad Children's Hospital, Iraqi doctors sent her home to die.
Tabitha's father, Abdul Rahman, couldn't accept that his 4-month-old daughter was going to die, so he approached coalition forces for help.
Rahman, a translator with the 306th Military Police Battalion, and a soldier approached Maj. (Dr.) Brad Wenstrup, chief of surgery, asked if he could look at his ill daughter. He presented lab work and a hand-written summary of the child's condition from a doctor at Baghdad Children's Hospital.
Wenstrup told Abdul that the military hospital, designed to provide medical care to detainees and the soldiers in the area, ordinarily did not treat civilians unless they have been injured by coalition forces, but he would see what he could do. |
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| Tabark Abdul Rahman recovers at the Abu Ghraib medical facility, after being treated for pneumonia. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Carolanne Diggs |
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| Task Force 344 does not have a pediatrician on staff. They mostly deal with trauma patients and day-to-day clinical services, so they made some calls. Wenstrup called together several doctors in the hospital, including Dr. Robert Natoaloni, family medicine, whose wife is a pediatrician in Long Island, N.Y. Natoaloni called his wife on the telephone and held the child up so that she could hear the cough over the phone. Based on tests and the phone consultation, a tentative diagnosis of the child was made.
Tabitha was treated for pneumonia. When she was released, she was already gaining back weight and was alert and active. |
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