U.S. Military Hospital Healing More Iraqis
As American Casualties Fall, Care For Iraqis Maimed In Violence Ramps Up, Lives Saved
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U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ron Stokes comforts five-year-old Sajad Lafta, who lost his left leg in a car bombing that left two of his brothers dead, as medical staff takes a blood sample from the child at the Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, Sept. 15, 2008. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
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Yassir Mustafa Majid, center, is assisted by his father, second left, and and U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. David Reza as he is discharged from the Air Force Theater Hospital, after treatment for a head wound from a car bombing, in Balad, Sept. 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
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"This man is a poster child for what we see here - head-to-toe injuries. He would have possibly not survived if he didn't come here," said Malone, a practicing physician at the University of Maryland Medical Center and chief of the medical research branch at Air Force headquarters.
Malone predicted that the man would stay at least a week in the hospital - something unheard of just a year ago.
Iraqi patients are surviving at higher rates partly because of bed space. As violence declines and fewer Americans are brought to the hospital daily, Iraqis are able to stay longer and receive more thorough care.
In August 2007, Iraqi patients stayed an average of about four days, but last month the average jumped to nearly a week, according to hospital data. The time coincides with a drop in admissions. The hospital admitted 140 trauma patients - including Americans and Iraqis - last month, less than half the number of August 2007.
"We now have the luxury of time and bed space to keep them here a little bit longer. That is a big reason why our numbers have gone up," Mavity said.
Over the past four years since the Air Force took control of the hospital, experience is paying off. Though doctors rotate every four months, the lessons and techniques are passed on not just to incoming surgeons but to doctors and medical staff back home.
"We are learning firsthand the physiology of blunt versus full body trauma," Malone said. "These are invaluable lessons because we just don't see this back home."
The place is physically cleaner as well, leading to fewer infections. Until July 2007, the hospital consisted of a series of large tents, similar to the combat hospital of "M.A.S.H" television fame. Now the 107,000-square-foot hospital has walls, a roof overhead and pumps dispensing hand sanitizing lotion every few feet.
There's also more follow through.
American soldiers who are admitted to the hospital are usually evacuated on flights to the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany within two days after arrival. A similar system has now been put in place for Iraqis who need more longer-term treatment.
If Iraqis are discharged to go home, they are given follow up appointments to come back to the base to make sure their recovery is on track. And if they need further hospital care, they are flown to facilities in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.
Although there are other U.S. combat hospitals in Iraq, the Balad facility is the largest and employs the only neurosurgeons. That makes the hospital a key destination in cases of severe head wounds.
While 70 Iraqis were admitted at Balad for trauma wounds in August, many more were treated solely at Iraqi hospitals.
But even as Iraq gets better at handling its own security, it is miles away from providing the level of medical care and other type of assistance provided now by U.S. military facilities. Any large-scale U.S. military pullout by 2011 will have to be matched by a major boost in Iraq health care and sanitation to fill the gap.
For now, many Iraqis must rely on the United States to treat their blast wounds.
Less than a week after the Dujail car bomb tore long, jagged gashes in Yassir Mustafa Majid's head, arm and legs, the 32-year-old third-grade teacher met his father at one of the Balad Air Base's gates.
He was going home, but said he would return in a couple weeks to get his thick stitches removed.
"If I wasn't brought here," Majid said, "I would have died."
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
Why?
For a couple days ago, since the media delays
reporting such inconvenient stuff as deaths
in Iraq, the militants gave the Iraqi doctors
100 more Iraqis to "heal'' and 32 that they wont
be able to "heal".
With 16 of the 32 right in Market Place Heaven
right under the nose of
The Surge''s own home territory.
He''''s the only one who can complete Bush''''''''s vision for the future of America!
Don''''t you see?!
Posted by JoeFoolSwat at 05:40 PM : Oct 02, 2008
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Joe, you''re a funny guy! If you KNEW what Bush''s "vision" was, you wouldn''t be saying it needs to be completed! Unless you''re fabulously wealthy and a VIP, you''re of no interest or use to Bush!
You need to do some research on him instead of just regurgitating ten second sound bites! Believe me, if you do, you''ll come away with an entirely NEW opinion!
I''m outta here!
But, need I state the obvious?!
IF we hadn''t invaded and attacked this country, that had nothing to do with 911, these people wouldn''t have gotten hurt to begin with and it wouldn''t be necessary to care for them NOW!!
So, it''s difficult to assert the U.S. is doing them a FAVOR!!
We''ve got to stay the course with McCain!
He''s the only one who can complete Bush''''s vision for the future of America!
Don''t you see?!
Having lived in England and traveled Europe, I too know a little bit about the topic of government health care, and I couldn''t disagree with you more. In fact, I did something in England that you might not have done; I got sick. I wasn''t working there, and I didn''t have travelers insurance (long story), but they took care of me very promptly, and it cost me less than I would have paid in co-pays with my insurance in the USA. The doctor was very good, very professional. The British friends I have are all very happy with their healthcare system and think it is worth the extra taxes. Of course, their taxes get spent a little differently than ours. Universal health. Subsidizing basic food stuffs. I found it much easier to be poor in England than middle class in the USA, though granted this was 9 years ago. I could get a can of soup for the equivalent of 12 cents and a loaf of bread for 25 cents. (Sure there was expensive processed foods too but I stayed away from them.) The money they pay in taxes they save in other areas of life, and they have a sense of security and community we don''t have here.
If you haven''t already I would suggest watching Michael Moore''s film "Sicko." Yes, I know he is far from impartial, but that doesn''t negate the corruption in the American healthcare insurance industry or the fact that people in other countries are by-and-large happier and better-off with socialized medicine.
What is wrong with this country is the fact that no one wants to collaborate they all want there way. Health care in Europe is as good as here. Of course you are talking about the wait time and that is true. But you forget it is not costing you anything so you go more often and are more likely to find a problem in the early stages.
If things were better here as far as medicine were concern than we would have the longest life expectancy that is not the case in fact we are not in the top 10. The one that has the highest is Cuba and many other countries. So to say that we have the best is not true.
One other thing the rich will always get better care than the poor they can afford it so what does it help you to complain about another type of system.
The real question is do you truly understand what this is all about.
For their health care all European countries charge $4.25 more per gallon of gas. How would you like to pay 8-9 dollars per gallon for gas and it still doesn''''t cover the cost. You can bet your life that when something is free there is never enough.
No one in this country goes with out medical care for the very poor you have Medicaid others can go to the Emergency Room of any Hospital and get care, they can''''t be turned away.
Posted by dmw1167 at 12:05 PM : Oct 02, 2008
YOU are a LIAR! POINT BLANK and YOU know it! THERE isn''t ONE of those Countries who have Universal Health Care, and ALL of the G-7 DO, would trade their plans for ours. A recent poll of the Citizens of Canada, for instance, showed that over 80% of those folks favored THEIR Health Care Plan over ours!! Helll you don''t need THAT to tell you they have a SUPERIOR Plan... our OWN Seniors were going there to take advantage of the Drugs if you remember. How can we EVER discuss things if people like this insist on outright LYING? Why can''t we have it and make it work?
Invade a country murder hundreds of thousands of its citizen, flatten the country then P R brag about giving out a little of your extra medicine. Should do that at home, u have the worst medical care in the world. EXCEPT FOR THE RICH.
Posted by babooph at 09:30 AM : Oct 02, 2008
I know and you want to hear something else I have a family member who is a doctor that moved to Europe and is working there she does see more paitences but here is the zinger. See paitences all day long and works less hours and is paid more than here and worked for our government. In fact gets paid about the same as if it was a owned practice.
But the neo cons know better just like Iraq they said WMD''s how is that search going bye the way.
Golly gee, if only everyone were as "perfect" as you!
BTW, how much do YOU weigh? And what kind of job do you have -- in what industry/business? Is it related to healthcare in any way, say, the insurance-mafia biz? You wouldn''''t have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, would you?
And, what about your personal health habits? What health problems do you have? What drugs do you take? Who pays for them -- the government, a la Medicare? Who is your healthcare provider? How often do YOU eat out? What do you eat?
Yes, if there''''s one thing this country needs, it''''s even more restrictions on access to affordable healthcare! That way, it creates more opportunities for private enterprise to rip-off consumers with obscenely priced gimmicks to provide the shoddiest services available.
Is this a great country, or what??!!!!
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Posted by imprisonrove at 08:50 AM : Oct 02, 2008
Taking care of yourself is not about being "perfect", it''s "taking care" of what you have. I''m not overweight, work out 3x a week, don''t smoke, drink occasionally. My husband is the same and my kid''s are healthy with good weight. In other household''s though, there is overindulgence in some things or everything. Obese adult''s often have obese children and diabetes/heart disease will be their lot. Should I pay for this when I don''t run my household this way?
- by petro49l October 2, 2008 9:40 AM EDT
- Osama Bin Laden produces tar heroin in his narcotics lab for sales to Addicts throughout the world. He isomizes exotic poppies that become a lethal, injectable substance. Al Qada is a crime syndicate dedicated to illicit drug trade and terror activity. Street heroin deals are very profitable. Islamabad protects Waziristan. The Saudis ordered the Pakistani Army to bitterly fight the Coalition.
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