U.S. Air Force medical staff are on hand to receive patients arriving by helicopter at the Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008. The Air Force Theater Hospital is best known for saving countless U.S. soldiers with catastrophic battle injuries. But dozens of Iraqi patients also come through its doors each month — many with shredded limbs, penetrating shrapnel fragments and devastating internal bleeding. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)US Combat Hospital Saving More Wounded Iraqis -- Yahoo News/AP
BALAD, Iraq - The U.S. military's main combat hospital in Iraq has increasingly switched to helping Iraqis. As the numbers of wounded American soldiers have fallen, the hospital is now saving the lives of a remarkable 93 percent of Iraqis who come with devastating injuries.
It's another sign of the radical improvements in health care made at combat trauma care units in war time — especially because unlike U.S. soldiers, most Iraqi patients at the Air Force Theater Hospital don't wear body armor and helmets or drive in vehicles designed to withstand roadside bombs.
"There are people with injuries that are brought here, and I say this with confidence, if they went anywhere else in the world, they would not survive," said Col. Mark Mavity, the commander of the hospital.
On one recent day, 5-year-old Sajad Lafta lay in his bed crying for his father while his older half brother, Abdul Wahid, tried to comfort him by holding up a picture of a puppy that Sajad colored while recovering at the hospital.
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My Comment: Another group to add to the list of unsung heroes.
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