- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Desperately
trying to treat the bloodied victims of Iraq's daily carnage Wednesday,
Doctor Mohammed Majeed said he has had enough.
-
- "Today I saw a 14-year-old girl die as her brain
tissue spilled out. I give up. I want to leave Iraq," he told Reuters
as mothers prayed over their sons in a grimy hospital ward.
-
- Shortly after dawn, a bomb set off by a fuel truck bomb
in the Bayya'a district of Baghdad killed at least 17 people, while around
16 others were badly burned in a huge fireball that engulfed a minibus
and several cars packed with commuters.
-
- Some of the victims lay on bloody sheets at dimly lit
Yarmuk hospital, reminding Majeed of his painful dilemma. "I am torn.
I want to leave Iraq for the sake of my children but I also want to help
Iraqis. But I feel so sad. I give up."
-
- In the days that followed the U.S.-led invasion, Majeed
had high hopes that the violence would eventually ease and he could help
build a modern health system in oil-rich Iraq.
-
- But little has changed in the eight months that have
elapsed since Saddam Hussein was toppled as president.
-
- "Saddam used to deprive hospitals of medicine so
that the world would criticize the sanctions. I thought we would get plenty
of medicine after the war," he said.
-
- "But nothing has changed. Now we still don't have
enough medicine because of export controls."
-
- FAMILIAR SCENES
-
- Majeed has treated hundreds of bombing victims since
the war ended in May, and the suffering around him is all too familiar.
-
- "What can we do? It is our future. Our future is
death," said 18-year-old Mussallam Abdurida, lying in a hospital bed.
-
- One man lay on his side, groaning in pain. In the next
bed a teen-ager with half of his lip blown off barely had the energy to
look at distraught relatives.
-
- "We had shrapnel in a patient's neck today. That
is dangerous because it can slice vessels carrying oxygen to the brain,"
the 35-year-old physician said.
-
- Hundreds of civilians have died in the conflict, and
Majeed expects to be treating many more in the months following Saddam's
capture Saturday.
-
- "His supporters will carry out more attacks. It
will get worse and we will be treating many more patients," Majeed
said.
-
- The pressure of victims being rushed to the emergency
room and of weeping, pleading parents is relentless.
-
- "I am afraid to go out in the streets with my children
and wife. I don't visit friends," Majeed said.
-
- "I just can't take this situation any more."
-
- Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
|
