Hospital in embattled Iraqi city loses patients to fear (Tal Afar)

[Barrett808]

Hospital in embattled Iraqi city loses patients to fear
By Jane Arraf
CNN Senior Baghdad Correspondent

TAL AFAR, Iraq (CNN) -- Khadija's father bribed and begged to get past a police checkpoint to bring his infant daughter to a hospital most people are afraid to enter.

"I said, 'Look she's about to die -- let me take her to the hospital to take care of her before she dies -- let her at least see a doctor,' Abbas Ali says he told the police.

In this nearly deserted hospital, the only functioning in the city, Ali watches his 5-month-old daughter's every labored breath. She lies on a metal cot beneath a clattering ceiling fan -- so tiny she's covered with a scarf for a blanket.

Severely dehydrated, she has no tears left to cry. A fly settles around her cracked lips.

Her father alternates between elation and despair.

"Look at her eyes -- Oh, God, let it stay -- look at how her face is now," he says when she wriggles. A moment later, her eyes momentarily roll up in their sockets. "At home ... she looked like she was dead -- her eyes like this -- just always staying like that," he says.

(more)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/06/10/arraf.afar/

[lebkuchen]

1. That was on CNNI--so pathetic to see the video of this

It sure didn't help Bush's crusade.

[Igel]

2. Two quotes.

"Khadija's mother, Aynee Abdul Qader, holds her 2-year-old son. They're all weary, she says. "She's been like this two months," she says." Why did they wait?

Three weeks ago (per story) the assault on Tal Afar kicked in. So it's obvious why she didn't get taken after that:

"The hospital is a particular target. U.S. and Iraqi forces seized it from insurgents two weeks ago. A soldier from the U.S. Army's Third Armored Cavalry Regiment was killed securing the building."

Since then there's been firefights between the Army and "insurgents."

8-9 weeks ill. 3 weeks accounted for. The possible inferences I draw are that she got worse, and it wasn't important enough until recently; or they didn't want to take her to the hospital when the "insurgents" were there. I'm open to other possible inferences.

[dionysus]

3. you're not there

thats a bullshit post

[Zerex71]

4. Hey, but Bush's oil buddies are rich, right?