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Posted on 04/15/2003 12:55:32 PM PDT by GailA
Iraqi boy airlifted to burns unit
Medical staff say Ali's condition deteriorates every day A young Iraqi boy who lost both his arms and most of his family in a coalition air raid is due to arrive in Kuwait to begin specialist treatment for his injuries.
Ali Ismail Abbas, who is 12, has left the Baghdad hospital where he was being treated and has been flown to the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya where he will be airlifted to Kuwait, arriving around 2000 GMT, US media reports say.
Ali will be nursed "as long as he needs the treatment" in Kuwait's Ibn Sina hospital, which has a specialist burns treatment centre, a Kuwaiti health ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.
Medical staff treating the boy had warned that he would die unless he was immediately flown out of the country to receive special care.
Kuwait is already treating seven Iraqi children injured in the war, the ministry said. All are said to be stable.
'Desperate situation'
Ali's father, his pregnant mother and siblings were killed in an attack on his home in Baghdad in which he was also severely burned.
The offer of help from Kuwait in his case came after a nurse at the Saddam City hospital in Baghdad, where he was being treated, issued a direct plea to coalition leaders.
"The situation is desperate. He will die if he stays," she wrote in a letter to US President George W Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mr Blair later responded during a meeting of the UK House of Commons, saying that British forces had been in contact with hospital authorities regarding such cases.
"We will do whatever we can to help him and others in similar situations," he said.
Ali's plight led to calls for coalition forces operating in Iraq to exercise more care regarding civilian casualties.
Several charitable organisations and media outlets also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in money to enable him to be treated.
Appalling conditions
Ali's case also highlighted the appalling conditions in Iraqi hospitals, many of which are simply unable to cope, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has warned.
"Hospitals are having to deal with ill children without the drugs they need and without water," spokeswoman Kathryn Irwin told BBC News Online.
"How can you treat someone without clean water?"
She also warned that unless hospitals got urgent help, more children would became dangerously malnourished, putting more pressure on the hospitals.
"Ali's voice is one among millions of children's voices we're not hearing," the spokeswoman said.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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I feel for the boy but, was it absolutely necessary to amputate his limbs?
I think the necessity may depend on how well equipped your hospital is. What would be a relatively minor wound here could easily be a death sentence there. I don't believe the doctors there are amputating for the fun of - they would do so to avoid infections that cannot otherwise be controlled.
The info on the fund for this brave lad:
DONATE TO OUR ALI APPEAL Apr 11 2003
To donate to our Ali Appeal, helping victims of the war, call 0870 902 3185 or +44 870 902 3185 from outside the UK.
You can use Visa, Mastercard or Switch over the phoneline.
Or you can send in a cheque or postal order to Daily Mirror Ali Appeal, PO Box 6867, London, E14 5AN.
In the UK you can walk into any branch of Natwest bank and make a donation to the Ali appeal, account number 39034356, sort code 60-00-01.
DONATE TO OUR ALI APPEAL - THE MIRROR
They may have a US branch set up but the Mirror is pretty anti-American so I am not sure.
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