A poignant story from a hospital in Germany re: Iraqi Casualties

[BlueCollar]

I didn't want to be selective so I'm just putting up the link. I wish we could get to that doctor and let him know that there are some of us who are very concerned about the troops...


http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-wohosp3986566sep27,0,3664242.story?coll=ny-health-headlines

[liberalmuse]

1. OMG!

That is an amazingly gut-wrenching story. I'm glad these doctors and nurses are taking care of our wounded soldiers. This story--the story of our wounded, their families and those who treat them should be all over the place. Nah. We wouldn't want to cloud our beautiful minds with stuff like this.

[enough]

2. This story is almost unbearable to read, but you MUST read it

and send it around. Thanks for posting, Blue Collar

Just a snip doesn't do justice to the power of this article.

snip>

"Get me more O2," shouted out a visibly upset nurse, Maj. Pat Bradshaw. She had been up and working for 28 hours, ferrying the wounded out of Iraq.

"She's stressed," said Capt. George Sakakini, a physician in charge of the team that greets the wounded. He watched from the curbside through the early-morning drizzle, keeping an eye on his highly trained squad of doctors, nurses and chaplains. "Someone's trying to die on her."

Full green oxygen tank in place, its contents filtering into the unconscious man's lungs, the team lowered the soldier on his stretcher to the ground. His scorched face was a painter's palette of the colors of pain: yellow, mauve, bright red.

In the intensive care unit, nurses quickly worked to make sure his wounds were as clean as possible. An infection could kill him. A couple of rooms over, more nurses worked on another young soldier, also unconscious, burned and sparring with death. Another roadside bomb victim. Dabbing gently, they spread thick white antimicrobial cream on the raw flesh of his forearms. Twenty percent of his body was burned.

much more>

[bleedingheart]

3. It brings me to tears.

[OneBlueSky]

4. and this is just about the American casualties . . .

double it, triple it, quadruple it to understand what's happenind to the Iraqi people . . . this war is a disaster and a disgrace . . . and the people who initiated it are war criminals . . .

[nostamj]

5. wow... tough read

It was an average morning at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, which has become the American military's museum of pain and maiming, doubt and anger. The planes from Iraq land every day, sometimes two or three of them.

[Jacobin]

6. I don't know what it will take to get the horror of this damn thing

into the consciences of Americans.

So damn sad. When I bring up the casualties, people where I live look at me like I just pissed on their lunch and mumble something insulting to me.

All for fucking nothing.

[skygazer]

7. Here are some grim statistics

<Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 18,000 military personnel have passed through the hospital from what staff refer to as "down range": Iraq and Afghanistan. Of those, nearly 16,000 have come from Iraq.>

<Then there are the Pentagon's figures that touch on all casualties from the war in Iraq: 1,042 dead; 7,413 injured in action, including 4,026 whose injuries have prevented them from returning to duty. In Afghanistan, there have been 366 injuries and 138 deaths.>


We want to end this suffering but we're the ones who don't "support the troops"?

And this is only the Americans - think of what the Iraqis are facing and without the medical options we have.