Jun 08
26
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The Burn Clinic
The Johnstown Breeze, CO - 3 hours ago If you ask any soldier in Iraq what he or she needs after the first three months in country, he or she will tell you, “I have so much junk food, ... |
HILLAH, Iraq – We all have our bad days, and on our bad days we generally feel the world is out to get us.
I can’t tell you how many days I’ve sat in Iraq, and looked at my calendar, where I have it marked how many days it has been since I was supposed to get out. As of today it is 357 … Yep, I’m approaching the year mark, and I think to myself, “A year of my life, more than I wanted to, I’ve spent in the Army, working long hours,” and there are no weekends here; we work every day.
Many of these days, we aren’t particularly busy, and despite the incredible gains that have been made this year, many of us just don’t feel we’ve contributed all that much. So it has been an extra year of my life I’ve spent in the Army, in a desert country so choked with dust you blow your nose and you get mud, and I really don’t feel like I’ve made much of a contribution to the security of Iraq.
As I’m thinking of how rough I have it, I get a package. It’s addressed to me, but I know from the address label it isn’t for me. I did ask for it, but it is not for me; it’s for the burn clinic.
Iraq isn’t a very safe place to live. Yes, there is a war going on here, but that isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about cooking on open fires, or on very unsafe propane stoves. I’m talking about a culture that kind of frowns on dousing someone in gas and dropping a match … But only kind of; after all, women and children are often viewed as property, and you can do with yours as you see fit.
This isn’t what Muhammad had in mind when he demanded change of the tribal leaders in Mecca. There are plenty of people who are badly burnt from a war that sometimes doesn’t differentiate between civilian and combatant, but if the war were to end tomorrow it would only have a slight impact on the number of women and children burnt in a country that doesn’t have the infrastructure to make something as simple as cooking safe.
Before my unit got here, the only option the civilians had was to go to a poorly-equipped and poorly-trained hospital that wasn’t sure how to deal with burn victims. The CSC Scania burn clinic is something that was started by my unit, 3-73 Cav.
Of all the improvements we have made on this deployment, the burn clinic is quite possibly the most impressive. It was all the work of a few medics who had little knowledge of burn care themselves, who thought perhaps we could help children who had nowhere to go for proper medical care.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Because of the lack of knowledge of how to treat burn victims, medics have developed their own treatment plan that has received some attention from the medical community. I’d rather not go into great detail about the new procedures that have been developed here, as it is enough to turn plenty of soldier’s stomachs, but I will say it is being looked at by much of the medical community as revolutionary as far as burn treatment goes. It is also being considered in many places outside of Iraq.
How successful has the burn clinic been? As I said, there was no Iraqi burn care before we arrived. Now, we treat the community’s surrounding base; we get referrals from the clinics in nearby cities; we get referrals from the hospital in Diwaniyah, 20 miles to our south; and we get referrals from the hospital in Baghdad 70 miles to our north. We even get a few patients from north of Baghdad … I guess when there is only one burn clinic in the country, you go as far as you have to in order to get to the burn clinic….
The idea that perhaps we shouldn’t be keeping the techniques to ourselves occurred to us not long after the clinic was started, so we contacted the surrounding communities and the hospital to the south to see if their doctors would be interested in learning these techniques so they could take care of the patients themselves.
When the doctors and clinics were approached, they were reluctant. To go to a U.S. military base for training would make them targets to insurgents. It was a chance most doctors would not take, and understandably so.
But like I said, that was not long after the clinic was started.
A lot has happened in Iraq since then. Enough has happened that the clinics we contacted have now contacted us, no longer worried about the danger for their doctors. They want to learn the techniques… Don’t tell the New York Times. Good news in Iraq is never good news.
I was approached by a family from Severance; the Petersons. I was also approached by the Loveland Elks Club. Both had the same question for me. “What do you need?”
If you ask any soldier in Iraq what he or she needs after the first three months in country, he or she will tell you, “I have so much junk food, I’m getting fat; and more decks of playing cards than I will ever be able to use.”
That is what I said when approached. I then mentioned the burn clinic, and the children who pass through CSC Scania; some of them with burnt arms or legs; some of them scalded all down their backs; some of them covered in burns.
So I told the Peterson family and the Loveland Elks Club, “The soldiers on SCS Scania don’t need anything. But the children at the burn clinic would love anything you can give them. Stuffed animals are very popular. Toys are popular. And then there is the Holy Grail, what everybody in Iraq wants … a soccer ball.”
With this request, I have received boxes of stuffed animals, boxes of children’s books, Frisbees (which usually end up being used as plates; kind of back to their original purpose in a way), and I’ve received soccer balls.
As I delivered these piles of booty, I asked the medics if I could help out. They were happy to accommodate me. I’m not sure how much help I was, but I did get to go through the whole process with one little girl.
It would be very trying if this was your job day after day. I won’t go into graphic detail, but I will say the children are made very uncomfortable with the processes. The little girl they “let me take care of” gripped my thumb so tightly while I cleaned her sores I lost all feeling in my thumb. And yet at the end of it all, you put a stuffed rabbit or a soccer ball into their hands, and they are all smiles. One day, they will have recovered normal use and little scaring from their burn, which is of course the real reward.
Yeah, we all have bad days. But put into perspective, my bad days could be a lot worse. Being in Iraq 357 days past the date I was supposed to get out isn’t all that bad. I don’t feel I’ve done much while here in Iraq, but I’ve been here at an extraordinary time.
Samuel Blackmer is a Roosevelt High School graduate from Milliken who is serving in the 82nd Airborne Division on his second combat deployment. He is currently serving in Iraq. The Burn Clinic is always in need of supplies, such as three-inch medical tape and four-inch pads. Stuffed animals and blankets are also always welcomed. Send any donations to: The Burn Clinic, CSC Scania, APO AE 09331.
