Wednesday, April 2, 2008

March Madness

Well the end of March was an exciting time here in Baghdad. As you may have gathered from my last email and the news - things here in Iraq got pretty busy from the military and medical standpoint. Starting on Easter Sunday morning and really continuing until yesterday - the skies were busy with a whole bunch of mortar and rockets being launched at various places in the Green Zone and some of the surrounding FOBs. Unfortunately two civilians who work with the embassy were killed and quite a few injuries - but for the most part the attacks were thankfully poorly aimed and didn't cause any casualties. From what the rumors are, most of the firing seems to come from areas in Baghdad called Sadr city. It is mostly poor slums that are heavily controlled by Muqhtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi militia. If you have a few minutes, you may want to google them to get a better idea of what they are about. As far as I can tell, they are mostly about being a gang of criminals with really big weapons who use religion as an excuse to further their own ends violently.

Sadr city itself is only a few miles from here, making it a convenient launching point for most of the indirect fire (IDF - rockets, mortars, and artillery). There had been increased combat that was taking place there and some of the surrounding areas and had accounted for the increased patient workload with injured soldiers and local national Iraqis coming to the CSH.


The hospital was almost at capacity during the week - even with the multiple evacuations out of the hospital -both to Iraqi facilities for local nationals, and to the Air Force hospital for our soldiers to be evacuated on to Germany. We did lose a few soldiers despite some really heroic attempts at resuscitation both by my colleagues down here in the ER - and the dedicated surgeons and intensivists up stairs. Even in the midst of the dozens of tragedies that surrounded us, people were doubly affected by the loss of the troops. Due to the threat of the indirect fire, we were unable to give all of them our last respects with their angel flights. It is strange that one ceremony really has quite an impact on those that work here, and people seemed to be almost as upset about not being able to salute the fallen soldier as about the death itself.


We have since gotten back to some sense of normalcy. At least back to the way it was before last week - as I don't think we can ever call this place truly normal. We have started to be able to return to the gym which is a huge part of what we all do on a daily basis. And now we can go outside again without wearing our body armor. Last night, though, I think I gave Amy quite a scare as I was talking on the phone to her on the roof of the hospital when the alarm for 'incoming' went off and I ran inside the building and hung up the phone by mistake after saying something along the lines of "oh-s*&t". I was able to call her back a few minutes later and put her at ease. And apologize for hanging up the phone on her...






More importantly - now that we can go outside without our IBA on again - we have to get back to the important monthly grilling of steak and lobster donated by our 18Delta - Special Forces medics who come and work with us. They have quite the hook-up, almost makes me want to join the Special Operations command... Just kidding.







As for the rest of the news for the month - thankfully, the moustaches are gone. They were horrendous - at least mine was. But other people were upset about looking like someone out of a B-rated movie as well. We did celebrate St. Patrick's day - even here in Iraq we celebrated. How else, by donning stupid hats and drinking green beer. Alright it was non-alcoholic beer, but still with a little green food coloring, made it just like home.








As usual, the dining facility personnel decorated to celebrate Easter in their usual Bangladeshi style... errrrrr..... whatever that means. No one can quite figure out what kind of animal that is and what it is doing. Any suggestions?








And then finally, as a little piece of home was sent to me from my friends over at UMass - a hat from LifeFlight to remind me of better times - probably the first time one of those hats was worn with IBA on and a weapon in hand.


Back at home - Amy is trying to stay as sane as possible with the girls. She really has her hands full and is doing a phenomenal job as always. I miss the three of them (and Riley) very much and can't wait to see them. 1/3 of the way done...








Anyway, back to work for me. Hope you are all doing well. Thank you for your recent emails and thoughts, very much appreciated.



No comments: