Iraqi Hospitals on Life Support - Babies Dying Because of Shortages

[Barrett808]

Iraqi Hospitals on Life Support - Babies Dying Because of Shortages of Medicine and Supplies
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 5, 2004; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- The stout woman, covered from head to toe in a black abaya, shuffled into the crowded hospital. She went straight to the emergency room and opened her robe to reveal a tiny baby wrapped in fuzzy blankets. The boy had been born prematurely, and the family was afraid he was going to die.

Uday Abdul Ridha took a quick look and shook his head. The physician put his hands on the woman's shoulders in sympathy, but his words were blunt. "I'm sorry," he said. "We cannot help you. We don't have an incubator, and even if we did, we are short on oxygen. Please try another hospital."

Scenes like this one at the Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Baghdad's Iskan neighborhood have become common in Iraq in recent months, as the health care system has been hit by a critical shortage of basic medications and equipment. Babies die of simple infections because they can't get the proper antibiotics. Surgeries are delayed because there is no oxygen. And patients in critical condition are turned away because there isn't enough equipment.

"We are dealing with a crisis," said Abdulwadood Talibi, director general of the State Company for Drugs and Medical Supplies, which is in charge of ordering all goods for the 240 public hospitals and 1,200 health centers in Iraq.

(more)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31728-2004Mar4.html

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. Long-term population reduction isn't just about landmines anymore!

[DulceDecorum]

2. Bush

the baby killer.

[cmd]

3. Ah, compassionate conservatism at work

Don't miss these paragraphs:

(snip)
After the war, the children's hospital and others were overrun with people who said they wanted to help. But the only follow-ups, according to nurses and doctors, were visits from UNICEF and the U.S. Army. The occupation authority said it has also visited the hospital to study its needs. The visitors brought gifts for the children during the holidays. There were new clothes, candy and milk, but that only made some parents more bitter, said Hadeel Jameel, a doctor's assistant in the cancer ward.

"When organizations come and play with the children and take photos, the mothers will cry because they think it means that this is all they can do and their children will die," she said.

[chimpy the poopthrower]

4. Ironic.

After the 80s lie about the Iraqis removing babies from incubators.

:(

[enough]

5. Similar article in Philadelphia Inquirer today

10 months after U.S. vow, Iraqi hospitals still in dire shape
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/8113713.htm
Posted on Fri, Mar. 05, 2004

Iraqi hospitals in dire shape
Months after a U.S. vow, supplies and sanitation are scarce.
By Ken Dilanian
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

BAGHDAD - Amaal Hameed sat hunched on a chair, sobbing quietly. Her 2-month-old boy lay dead on the hospital bed, wrapped in a black robe.

Flies buzzed about. Blood stained the floor. The nearby toilets were backed up with feces.

This was the cardiac unit of Iraq's premier children's hospital, but there were no nurses to comfort Hameed, no orderlies to help pack her belongings.

A young physician who was showing journalists around stopped to review the dead baby's chart. The boy had a heart defect, the kind repaired by a simple operation in developed countries. Even in Iraq, the operation is sometimes possible, the doctor said; it wasn't clear why it wasn't performed.

What is clear is that 10 months after the U.S.-led coalition promised to make things better, Iraq's shattered medical system is still a mess. Such basics as latex gloves and pain pills are often unavailable. Physicians routinely are threatened or attacked. Administrative staff chat over tea while toilets clog with filth, resulting in the spread of lethal infections.

much more>

Heartbreaking and infuriating.