Posted on 05/02/2009 9:24:26 AM PDT by SandRat
This computer rendering shows the planned $2.6 million state-of-the-art Zakho Emergency Hospital and Trauma Center. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing the project, with completion scheduled for August 2009. Rendering courtesy of USACE.
ZAKHO — Car accidents and trauma injuries account for a large percentage of the medical care administered in this Kurdish border town.
Although the town has adequate medical facilities, the treatment of trauma patients has placed a heavy burden on hospital medical staff.
To ease the strain, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division is overseeing the construction of a $2.6 million state-of-the-art medical trauma center, which will alleviate the need for trauma patients to be treated in hospital emergency rooms.
Construction began in April 2008 and is scheduled to be completed in August 2009.
“This facility represents a major improvement to medical trauma care in Zakho,” said Terry Samson, the USACE resident engineer in Dahuk. “This is a state-of-the-art trauma center with surgical wards and both X-ray and MRI facilities. The medical staff will mainly consist of trauma surgeons and nurses highly skilled in emergency care.”
The Zakho Emergency Hospital, being constructed with Economic Support Funds provided by the United States, will have the capacity to care for a majority of trauma patients here. The general contractor for the project is the Kurdish-owned Siapan Company and the trauma center is being built on the grounds of the existing hospital.
The project includes the construction of a power plant building to provide the center around-the-clock dedicated electrical power. Other features include an interior parking lot, a security fence and a fully staffed security building. The ESF money also covers the medical equipment, an ongoing technical training program for staff members and funds to cover the operation and maintenance costs of the hospital.
Samson is also quick to point out the marble floors and ceramic tile walls throughout the hospital. “That’s not something you’ll see every day in stateside hospitals,” he said.
“All USACE engineers in Iraq work on a number of projects. This hospital represents the crowning achievement for my work in Dahuk and something I will always look back on with pride,” Samson concluded.
I clicked in here guessing the border town was going to be Brownsville, Tejas...
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