Medics Battle for Girl"s Life
This amazing story is from Multi National Force-Iraq:
CAMP AL QA'IM — For a 12-year-old Iraqi girl in need of a kidney and liver transplant, time is the enemy. Her friends are a team of U.S. Marines and Sailors who have applied their medical skills to help the keep the girl alive. Hadael Hamade is in desperate need of surgery, say U.S. Navy physicians who have treated her in recent months. The girl first befriended Marines from 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, months ago when the Marines were on patrol in Karabilah - a city of about 30,000 near the Iraq-Syria border.“When we first saw Hadael several months ago, she was walking,” said Navy Lt. Mark D. Rasmussen, an anesthesiologist with the surgical suite here. “Now she can’t move much. The Marines needed to carry her from her house to the Humvee, and from the Humvee to the surgical suite here.”
Ahmed carries his daughter, Hadael Hamade, into a U.S. military medical facility in Al Qa’im. Department of Defense photo by Marine Capt. Mike Alvarez.Since then, U.S. military forces here have regularly checked-up on the girl, evaluating her condition. Hadael’s father, Ahmed, a 46-year-old school teacher, sought the aid of Marines and Sailors, stating that doctors in his country cannot help his daughter.After losing four children to kidney disease, he’s not ready to let Hadael suffer the same fate as her brothers and sisters, he said.
CAMP AL QA'IM — For a 12-year-old Iraqi girl in need of a kidney and liver transplant, time is the enemy. Her friends are a team of U.S. Marines and Sailors who have applied their medical skills to help the keep the girl alive. Hadael Hamade is in desperate need of surgery, say U.S. Navy physicians who have treated her in recent months. The girl first befriended Marines from 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, months ago when the Marines were on patrol in Karabilah - a city of about 30,000 near the Iraq-Syria border.“When we first saw Hadael several months ago, she was walking,” said Navy Lt. Mark D. Rasmussen, an anesthesiologist with the surgical suite here. “Now she can’t move much. The Marines needed to carry her from her house to the Humvee, and from the Humvee to the surgical suite here.”
Ahmed carries his daughter, Hadael Hamade, into a U.S. military medical facility in Al Qa’im. Department of Defense photo by Marine Capt. Mike Alvarez.Since then, U.S. military forces here have regularly checked-up on the girl, evaluating her condition. Hadael’s father, Ahmed, a 46-year-old school teacher, sought the aid of Marines and Sailors, stating that doctors in his country cannot help his daughter.After losing four children to kidney disease, he’s not ready to let Hadael suffer the same fate as her brothers and sisters, he said.
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