seruriermarshal
04-19-2005, 08:02 PM
Mississippians save Iraqi child
FORWARD OPERATING BASE ISKANDARIYAH, IRAQ -- Soldiers from the 155th Brigade Combat Team saved the life of an Iraqi policeman's 18-month-old daughter and helped her two older sisters after a heater malfunctioned and caught their house on fire March 12 in Iskandariyah.
The policeman took his children to a local clinic shortly after the incident where they were given first-response care, but the doctors told him there would be a fee of $300 to give them the care they needed.
Without enough money to admit his daughters into the clinic, the policeman was forced to return home and hope for the best. However, their conditions worsened during the next few days and he began searching for another option. The option he found was the Army.
SPC Raymond Lewis, combat medic, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 155th Brigade Combat Team, Mississippi National Guard, was on a reconnaissance mission with a squad of Soldiers when he was approached by the Iraqi Policeman who was concerned about his children, who were still suffering from burns they received eight days prior.
"I went down there to see what was going on," SPC Lewis said. "The baby had second- and third-degree burns all over her face, another child who was about seven (years old) had second- and third-degree burns to the right side of her face and her ear. They also had another child. I think she was about five (years old), and she had first-degree burns to her legs.
"I treated the five year old with the leg burns and told them we needed to get the baby back to the (Troop Medical Clinic) because she had an infection. You could tell the child was in pain," he said.
Many of the medics said what they saw when the girl arrived in the clinic was something they never could have prepared themselves for.
"We saw the daddy carrying the baby up the steps ... It was a pretty devastating sight," said SPC Laurel Stough, Company C, 106th Battalion, 155th BCT. "Her face was charred and she had blisters all over it."
The medics cleaned the baby's burns and applied ointment to prevent further infection.
"When she got here, I thought she was pretty stable, but with a possible infection," said MAJ Robert Bailey, 1st Bn., 155th Infantry, a physician who is attached to the 155th BCT. "We were optimistic that the burns themselves would heal, but we were concerned about the secondary infection."
While the medics and physicians at the TMC were treating the infant, SPC Lewis told them about the other children and their condition and suggested they take a look at them as well.
Once the youngest child was cleaned up and her wounds were dressed, her father took her home along with an invitation to return the next day with all three of his daughters so the soldiers could look at the other children and see how the 18-month-old was doing after the treatment.
When the father returned with all three children, MAJ Bailey said the five-year-old girl was pretty well healed, but the other two were in pretty serious condition, and MAJ Bailey's concerns about the baby became more founded.
The 18-month-old was not responding as well as she had when they treated her the night before, and the seven-year-old was burned so badly that the burn cream they use to prevent infection kept sliding off the wound, MAJ Bailey said.
"By the next day, I would say she was a little bit more worrisome," MAJ Bailey said of the youngest girl. "She was not quite as active.
"The first night she was eating and drinking very well," he said. "The second night ... She was not drinking quite as well. The temperature was down a little bit, but her heart rate was up a little higher than the night before and we were concerned that, in spite of the antibiotics, that she would benefit from hospitalization."
After seeing a drop in the baby's condition and looking at the severity of the burns on her sister's face, the physicians opted to call a medical evacuation team to take the two children to the 86th Combat Support Hospital which has pediatric equipment and can hospitalize the children.
MAJ Bailey said he thinks both of the girls will have a full recovery and may have some scarring from the burns, but they will probably not need to have plastic surgery.
"I think they will recover nicely," he said. "And that's the idea behind having them go to the CSH."
While supporting the local population is not the TMC's primary mission, it is something they say is helping the Coalition bring stability to the country.
"The Iraqi people are really in a crutch getting back up on their feet," MAJ Bailey said. "They just started laying the foundation for the new medical training center in Baghdad, where they will be training doctors, and we're going to be working in the field trying to get their healthcare system up. So it's not really us taking care of them it's helping them get back in the mode of taking care of themselves."
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From (http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14374160&BRD=1433&PAG=461&dept_id=170165&rfi=6)
FORWARD OPERATING BASE ISKANDARIYAH, IRAQ -- Soldiers from the 155th Brigade Combat Team saved the life of an Iraqi policeman's 18-month-old daughter and helped her two older sisters after a heater malfunctioned and caught their house on fire March 12 in Iskandariyah.
The policeman took his children to a local clinic shortly after the incident where they were given first-response care, but the doctors told him there would be a fee of $300 to give them the care they needed.
Without enough money to admit his daughters into the clinic, the policeman was forced to return home and hope for the best. However, their conditions worsened during the next few days and he began searching for another option. The option he found was the Army.
SPC Raymond Lewis, combat medic, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 155th Brigade Combat Team, Mississippi National Guard, was on a reconnaissance mission with a squad of Soldiers when he was approached by the Iraqi Policeman who was concerned about his children, who were still suffering from burns they received eight days prior.
"I went down there to see what was going on," SPC Lewis said. "The baby had second- and third-degree burns all over her face, another child who was about seven (years old) had second- and third-degree burns to the right side of her face and her ear. They also had another child. I think she was about five (years old), and she had first-degree burns to her legs.
"I treated the five year old with the leg burns and told them we needed to get the baby back to the (Troop Medical Clinic) because she had an infection. You could tell the child was in pain," he said.
Many of the medics said what they saw when the girl arrived in the clinic was something they never could have prepared themselves for.
"We saw the daddy carrying the baby up the steps ... It was a pretty devastating sight," said SPC Laurel Stough, Company C, 106th Battalion, 155th BCT. "Her face was charred and she had blisters all over it."
The medics cleaned the baby's burns and applied ointment to prevent further infection.
"When she got here, I thought she was pretty stable, but with a possible infection," said MAJ Robert Bailey, 1st Bn., 155th Infantry, a physician who is attached to the 155th BCT. "We were optimistic that the burns themselves would heal, but we were concerned about the secondary infection."
While the medics and physicians at the TMC were treating the infant, SPC Lewis told them about the other children and their condition and suggested they take a look at them as well.
Once the youngest child was cleaned up and her wounds were dressed, her father took her home along with an invitation to return the next day with all three of his daughters so the soldiers could look at the other children and see how the 18-month-old was doing after the treatment.
When the father returned with all three children, MAJ Bailey said the five-year-old girl was pretty well healed, but the other two were in pretty serious condition, and MAJ Bailey's concerns about the baby became more founded.
The 18-month-old was not responding as well as she had when they treated her the night before, and the seven-year-old was burned so badly that the burn cream they use to prevent infection kept sliding off the wound, MAJ Bailey said.
"By the next day, I would say she was a little bit more worrisome," MAJ Bailey said of the youngest girl. "She was not quite as active.
"The first night she was eating and drinking very well," he said. "The second night ... She was not drinking quite as well. The temperature was down a little bit, but her heart rate was up a little higher than the night before and we were concerned that, in spite of the antibiotics, that she would benefit from hospitalization."
After seeing a drop in the baby's condition and looking at the severity of the burns on her sister's face, the physicians opted to call a medical evacuation team to take the two children to the 86th Combat Support Hospital which has pediatric equipment and can hospitalize the children.
MAJ Bailey said he thinks both of the girls will have a full recovery and may have some scarring from the burns, but they will probably not need to have plastic surgery.
"I think they will recover nicely," he said. "And that's the idea behind having them go to the CSH."
While supporting the local population is not the TMC's primary mission, it is something they say is helping the Coalition bring stability to the country.
"The Iraqi people are really in a crutch getting back up on their feet," MAJ Bailey said. "They just started laying the foundation for the new medical training center in Baghdad, where they will be training doctors, and we're going to be working in the field trying to get their healthcare system up. So it's not really us taking care of them it's helping them get back in the mode of taking care of themselves."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From (http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14374160&BRD=1433&PAG=461&dept_id=170165&rfi=6)