Clinic spotlights Iraqis’ needs

Coughing, sneezing, hacking, the common signs of an upper chest illness were prevalent.

For Lt. Col. Mohmed Fteakan, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Division of the Iraqi Army, it was important to take the medical pulse of this small Iraqi farming community.

The lieutenant colonel wants to show the village’s residents that the Iraqi Army soldiers are concerned about the well-being of Iraqi civilians.

It could be a hard sell with many Sunnis. They are not enamored with Shiites, who predominately make up the Iraqi Army.

But Capt. Brandon Cave, commander of Bravo Troop, 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), said the Iraqi battalion commander and his soldiers are well respected.

Working with the Iraqi officers soldiers daily — some are part of the troop’s Patrol Base Corregidor — gives Cave a different perspective of what the Iraqi commander wants to do.

“It’s not about Sunnis and Shi’ites. It’s about Iraqis,” the troop commander said.

When it comes to “Colonel Mohmed,” as Cave calls the Iraqi, he’s a person that, using an American phrase, thinks out of the box.

“This is a nation that needs big solutions to try and fix the problems,” the Iraqi officer said.

While holding a medical clinic in itself is not a huge solution, it’s one of many needed. The battalion commander said the U.S. Army has gone out of its way to provide assistance.

Friday’s clinic was designed to “give the people a sense of the type of service the Iraqi Army can do,” Colonel Mohmed said. The Iraqi Army will eventually have to establish its credentials as a helper of the people, not a group that looks down on everyday Iraqis.

“The Iraqi Army is the umbrella,” the lieutenant colonel said, adding that in the future the people will see its military as their supporters.

Although the officer was hoping some physicians would travel to the area from Baghdad, none showed up to take part in the clinic.

A civilian Iraqi doctor who operates a couple of clinics in the area that serves nearly 20,000 people arrived with 20 Iraqi nurses — male and female — in tow.

Although Iraqi Army medics, most of whom are trained by the U.S. Army, were the main providers, the Americans found themselves called upon to give care due to the lack of Iraqi medical personnel.

Before accepting the first patient, a pharmacy was established in one of the rooms of a defunct water treatment plant.

Iraqi and American soldiers brought in boxes of medicine from Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Syria and Iran.

Pallets of water were placed outside the building where men and younger children, including girls, would be examined. Women, older girls and some younger boys would be seen in another building.

Waterborne diseases, including cholera, are striking communities that no longer have basic water treatment capabilities.

While people were being examined, Iraqi and U.S. officials discussed how to bring the water treatment plant back on line.

A number of canals bring water from the Euphrates River. People use the water for cooking, washing clothes, drinking and as a sewage system. For those who are lucky to have running water in their homes, none of it is purified.

It’s not unusual to see someone scoop up a handful of water from a canal to drink when a couple of feet away garbage is discarded to float away.

It is estimated 300 people were seen during the six-hour long clinic, keeping the six examining rooms busy.

Many patients first walked — a lucky few were driven — to an area, where they went through a security screening. Once past that hurdle, they lined up where a triage system was used to send the most critically ill people to another stop where vital signs were taken.

The Iraqi doctor, who has worked in the area for decades and knows most of the people, went from examining room to examining room and looked at the more seriously ill patients — of which there were plenty.

One patient was a girl, not yet 3, who had some sort of blockage in her nose, making it difficult for her to breathe.

The girl cried in discomfort as her father tried to calm her, kissing her forehead, holding her hand and smiling, giving a look of “it’s going to be fine” on his face as his daughter’s face was full of anxiety.

As one of the Iraqi nurses blew into the girl’s mouth to help create pressure to dislodge the item in one of her nostrils, the doctor extracted the offending unknown object. With a deep sigh, the child stopped crying as her father picked her up and gave his daughter a hug.

The doctor was then off to the next examining room, one of many at the clinic that were dank and dark.

In this room, a man in his late 20s or early 30s waited for him. The man’s feet were swollen and he had chest and abdomen pains, so much so that Dr. Fadil was concerned about a number of potential problems, including appendicitis.

The man had been carried to the examining room by two military medics — an Iraqi and an American.

The Iraqi physician wanted to have the man admitted to a hospital, but there was no capability to do that. So, after examining the patient, Dr. Fadil decided to medicate the man with massive amounts of antibiotic shots and to follow him to see if he had to be admitted.

Many Iraqi Sunnis do not want to go to hospitals in Baghdad or even a nearby town, as those facilities are run by Shi’ites.

Fearing poor circulation and possible heart problems, the physician said the best course of action is not to put additional stress on the man or the man’s father, who accompanied his son to the clinic.

In the women’s area, Army physician assistant 1st Lt. Tony Hankerson looked at children but did not examine women. If a woman had to be examined, she was sent to one of the female American military medics.

After the clinic closed, Hankerson, who is the senior medical man for Cave’s unit, said he saw a “lot of ringworm, colds and malnutrition.”

One elderly woman passed out while waiting to be seen. The Iraqi doctor’s diagnosis was malnutrition, diabetes and acid reflux. With all the symptoms combined, she cannot eat and hold anything down, he said.

As the woman waited for her daughter to pick up medicine, she began to lay on the ground, shivering. Iraqi Army medics ran to her, putting her on a litter and directing someone to take the daughter to the head of the pharmacy line so the woman could go home.

Dr. Fadil said the woman should be in a hospital. But the elderly woman did not want to go.

Noting the people “are peasant farmers,” Hankerson said it is common to see such illnesses in an economically-depressed area.

The troop’s 3rd Platoon provided site security, along with other U.S. military personnel, Iraqi soldiers and members of the Concerned Local Citizens, an auxiliary guard group paid by the American government.

The platoon, which was out of Patrol Base Corregidor, got up at 3 a.m. and returned to their base at 6 p.m.

Colds, bangs, bruises, broken limbs or pregnant women weren’t the only cases at the clinic. Some seeking help for relatives wanted a magic cure.

One man brought his four sons ranging in age from about 8 to early 20s. Each was mentally retarded. The father was seeking a pill that would cure his sons’ mental problems.

All that could be done was to provide medicines to help deal with the boys’ colds.

As the father went to the growing line outside the pharmacy, the sons dutiful followed him. He gently sat each one down by a wall in the treatment plant. He spoke to each and then got in line.

One man in line indicated he would hold the father’s place so he could be with his sons. The boys were fine — they could see dad, who later got back into line.

For 45-year-old Salh Al Aethw, he and his 9-year-old daughter, Nohi, sought medicine for their colds.

Like many in the area, the father said he did not go to a doctor or clinic because he is poor. The man, who is a taxi driver, said he wishes there was a free clinic in every village, opened every day.

He had stood in line for five hours. As he and his daughter walked away, he clutched a plastic bag of medicine.

Then there was the local soccer star, a man described as in good health by one of the interpreters. He carried in his son, whose cerebral palsy-wracked body was badly contorted.

Like others, he wanted magic medicine to straighten his son’s frame, which, if it could be done, meant the boy would have been at least 5 feet tall.

As the father sought help, it became evident to him that there was no pill, no liquid and no shot that would cure his son’s ailment.

As the banter went back and forth, the boy cried out, looking for someone he knew.

The boy’s sister went to him as he lay on a litter. She held his hand, returning a calm countenance to the boy’s face.

Friday’s visit to the clinic was the first time in six years the boy had been examined. He was healthy until he was 6 months old, according to the father.

While nothing could be done to alleviate the family’s anguished, the family was provided a wheelchair.

Iraqi medics put the boy into the wheelchair. The father now doesn’t have to carry his son around.

HERALD/REVIEW senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.

Iraqi physician Dr. Fadil Monhoush Deub Al Zawbori, left, and an Iraqi male nurse work on removing an item from a girl’s nostril at a temporary medical clinic run by the Iraqi Army in a village south of Baghdad on Friday. The child’s father is at right. (Bill Hess-Herald/Review)

There are many heroes in all shapes and sizes on this earth. Thank you for a most heart warming story that reminds us all that we do make a difference :)

2 posted on 01/06/2008 7:55:50 AM PST by Cate (Thank God for the USA and our troops!)

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