Patrick Thibeault 

From the Stars and Stipes

Middleeast Edition

24 January 2005 on page 4

 

U.S. medics are going

the extra mile to help

sick Afghan children

 

BY KEVIN DOUGHERTY

Stars and Stripes

 

KABUL, Afghanistan—A man cradling a sickly child in his arms

and walking for a couple of hours to get help makes for a powerful

image. Perhaps just as inspiring is the willingness of people half a world

away to step forward and save the little guy with a bad heart from

certain death. The outpouring of support “has been just amazing,” said

Capt. Mike Roscoe, a physician Assistant with the 76th Infantry

Brigade, Indiana National Guard. By late February,

the benefactors who have rallied to the aid of Qudrat Ullah

hope to fly the 1-year-old to the United States for

a heart operation. “He will die without the surgery,”

said Lt. Col. Terry Snow, the brigade’s civil military affairs

officer. During anOctober visit to a refugee

camp near Kabul, a brigade medical staff evaluated Qudrat,

one of many kids examined that day. It confirmed an earlier diagnosis

by a Pakistani doctor that Qudrat has a hole in his heart, inhibiting

the flow of blood through his body.

 

But due to a lack of adequate equipment on hand and certain

policies, the medical team couldn’t move him. Two days

later, the boy’s father, Hakim Gul, walked to Camp Phoenix

with his only child in his arms. Thus began a tedious effort by

the guard unit to get Qudrat to Riley’s Children’sHospital in Indianapolis.

It involved coordinating with doctors and organizations,

fund-raising and plenty of paperwork, such as visas. “Every time we turned around there seemed to be a roadblock,” Snow said.

 

Doctors at the hospital have offered to performthe surgery, estimated

to cost at least $50,000, free of charge, Roscoe said. In

addition, the Rotary Club of Greenfield, Ind., of which Snow is

a member, has agreed to cover many of the

out-of-pocket expenses during the estimated

30-day stay. “We are just waiting for the military to OK

his flight,” Roscoe said. “Everything Is ready. Our end

is prettymuch done.”

 

Meanwhile, another effort is

underway to send a 5-year-old Afghan boy stateside for surgery to

repair his arms, chest and back, which were burned in a house

fire. The fire killed his mother and a couple of siblings.

Soldiers at Camp Phoenix said Wednesday they raised enough

money to help him and his father obtain travel visas.

“He’s a tough cookie,” said Sgt. Patrick Thibeault, a medic in

Herat who, while assigned to Camp Phoenix, treated the boy.

“If he could get the operation, he’ll be back to normal in a couple of years.”