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Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

Chaos and War Leave Iraq's Hospitals in Ruins
(Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, February 14, 2004)
At Baghdad's Central Teaching Hospital for Children, gallons of raw sewage wash across the floors. The drinking water is contaminated. According to doctors, 80 percent of patients leave with infections they did not have when they arrived. . . . Doctors say they have been beaten up in the emergency room. Blood is in such short supply that physicians often donate their own to patients lying in front of them. . . . "The word `big' is not enough to express the disaster we are facing," said Ahmed A. Muhammad, the hospital's assistant manager. . . . Iraqi doctors say the war has pushed them closer to disaster. Fighting and sabotage have destroyed crucial infrastructure and the fall of Saddam Hussein precipitated a breakdown in social order. . . . "It's definitely worse now than before the war," said Eman Asim, the Ministry of Health official who oversees the country's 185 public hospitals. "Even at the height of sanctions, when things were miserable, it wasn't as bad as this. At least then someone was in control." . . . The violence on the streets has seeped into the wards, with attacks on staff members and feuds being finished in the corridors. . . . And the list goes on. While Health Ministry officials say no comprehensive health survey has been conducted since the war, several doctors here said that infant mortality is up. Of 48 babies recently brought to the neonatal clinic at Yarmuk Hospital, 19 died, said Tala al-Awqati, a pediatrician. "That is twice as many as last year," she said. . . . She also said that more women were choosing to give birth at home, increasing the chances of complications, because they were frightened of venturing into the streets to deliver at a hospital. . . . The Red Cross and the United Nations used to run health programs in Iraq. But after the headquarters of both organizations were bombed last year, foreign experts pulled out. . . . Doctors also said that the postwar sabotage of the country's primary pharmaceutical factory in Samarra and the looting of the central supply depot in Baghdad had depleted the country of needed supplies. . . . Then there is the experiment with democracy. After Mr. Hussein's government fell, doctors decided to pick their own leaders. "They told us this is the democratic way," said Dr. Asim, the Health Ministry official. "Now we have dentists in charge of surgery centers." . . . Before the sanctions, Baghdad Central offered 11 gleaming floors of state-of-the-art health care. Now it is a grubby expanse of cracked tile, bald hallways and drafty rooms. . . . Dr. Asim, the Health Ministry official, recently inspected 40 hospitals around the country. "There were days I came back crying," she said.

posted by LoZo 5:01 PM