Sorry to be very late with my emails, I am very busy in my job.
I am going to speak about my country’s disaster! Stage by stage
Just after I disconnected from writing last time, the internet service went down for good. We never made a connection after that day.
Then Iraqis, (former members of the Ba’ath Party), started to make shelters all over the city, and we were expecting there to be a lot of street combat.
On 19-3-2003, I was on duty at the hospital, when I heard the alarm sirens go off. A few minutes after that the bombing started.
It was very near the hospital, so much so that every single patient went out of the hospital running and screaming. It was a terrible moment. I hope that it won’t come back again.
We started to calm down the patients, telling them that nothing is going to affect the hospital, and whatever is going to happen, we (the doctors) will stay in the hospital.
But as a matter of fact of the 200 patients at the hospital, that night, only 10 stayed!
That was just the beginning.
On that messy day, everybody in the town was sad and worried as everybody was expecting another attack.
Patients started to flee out of the hospital, and by the mid-day, even patients in critical health situations left the hospital on their own decision.
We couldn’t prevent them from doing so. They said they would prefer to die at home with their families.
As a part of the Emergency Plan proposed by the old government, our hospital (which is only concerned about paediatrics and maternity, no casualty or emergency departments) have been turned into a surgical emergency and casualty ward. By the evening, we started to receive injured people.
There were varying degrees of injury, from mild bruising and fractures to limb loss and severe head injury.
Thank God the electricity and water supply were continuous all over the war. Since alarm sirens were sounding every few minutes declaring new air strikes and new floods of patients to the hospitals!
Yahya
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