Iraq...Dying in squalor, the children betrayed by broken promises

[shraby]

Baghdad doctors despair at hospital's filthy conditions and lack of drugs, writes Julius Strauss

Yasser has only days to live. He is 11. His arms are bruised, his legs have wasted away and his gums are clogged with blood - a result of the leukaemia that has ravaged his body.

Yesterday he lay on a soiled sheet and grimaced with pain in the Central Teaching Hospital for Children, the leading paediatric unit in Baghdad once known as the Saddam Children's Hospital.

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<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/05/whosp05.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/06/05/ixworld.html>

Weren't we supposed to have done a lot for the hospitals???

[Mnemosyne]

1. My heart is broken for the innocents. May forgiveness be.

[Ms. Clio]

2. "Weren't we supposed to have done a lot for the hospitals???"

That was just another lie.

Iraqi Kids Suffer at Underfunded Hospital

"Even though improved medical care is a stated priority of U.S. occupation authorities, medicine is still costly and in short supply. Often, parents must buy medicine on the open market at prices many cannot afford."

(snip)

Cockroaches roam hospital wards and pools of urine in the corridors are not unusual. There is an overpowering stench from toilets that overflow into the wards; sewage sometimes runs through the corridors.

(snip)

The doctors said U.S. Army medical teams and various humanitarian groups have come to the hospital in recent months and made lists of the medicine and supplies that are needed. But nothing has arrived.

About four months ago, the U.S. military brought several Iraqi workers to the hospital who cleaned and painted the walls and did some superficial repairs to the wards. They also took pictures with some of the children.

"Painting the walls is not so important. We need drugs," Faik said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=7&u=/ap/iraq_dying_children

[elf]

3. Its also published in Europa's main papers

There are already people who try to collect money, but it's not enough. Help doesn't get through!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY????????????

[happyending]

4. the US press

Sadder still is that this sort of story is ignored by the US press. Why is this happening? Why? There are American reporters there (granted, things are so bad, so dangerous in Iraq that our reporters are afraid to leave the Green Zone, but still... God Damn it, they ARE reporters, aren't they?)