LAT: Iraqi Shiites bury their dead, A lack of medical supplies adds to rising toll

[maddezmom]

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Among the victims were a four-member team providing medical assistance to the pilgrims along the route, health workers said. A doctor working at a nearby surgery also died in the blasts.

But the victim in the broader war, those workers say, is Iraq's health system, which once was an object of regional envy. Hundreds of doctors have been hunted down and killed. Thousands of others have fled. Corruption and mismanagement have drained hospitals of desperately needed medicine and equipment.

Health workers were reduced to pleading with survivors to donate blood, said Mohammed Radhi, a hospital employee.

Pain killers and antiseptic were in short supply. "People were bringing drugs from private pharmacies to the patients here," said a nurse who gave her name only as Umm Hussein.

Many patients spent the night on mats and gurneys in the hallway, she said.

more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq8mar08,1,2511408.story?track=rss