September 6, 2006

Medics Race Time To Save a Local Girl


A school teacher in Karabilah comforts his 12-year-old daughter while Cmdr. Tara J. Zieber, a U.S. Navy medical director, check vital signs. (Photo by Marine Capt. Mike Alvarez)


By Cpl. Antonio Rosas
1st Marine Division

CAMP AL QA'IM, Iraq — 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.” Full Story

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