U.S., Iraqis provide healthcare to out-of-the-way Anbar town

1st BCT,
82nd Abn. Div. PAO

	Photo by Spc. Katie Summerhill/366th MPAD Specialist Aubrey Stoda, a medic with 307th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st brigade combat team, 82nd Airborne division, demonstrates to a patient how to open wide during a one-day, combined U.S. – Iraqi medical clinic June 6, in Kubaysah, Iraq. Female health care providers were present to meet cultural restrictions of the Iraq people.

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq — U.S. Army healthcare providers and Iraqi doctors held a one-day medical clinic June 3 for the residents of Kubaysah, Iraq.

American medics from 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division joined local doctors to assess and treat nearly 400 of the town’s 20,000 residents.

Captain Kenneth Brodie, a physician assistant with 3rd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, estimated that between several Army medics and the four primary care providers – two males and two females, one each Iraqi and American – they treated about 90 percent of the cases that walked through the door.

“We saw a lot of what we expected to see; a lot of congenital-type issues that we were unable to treat,” said Brodie. “On the flipside, we were able to treat acute-type situations – dermatological rashes, ear infections, those kinds of things that we could treat with antibiotics and analgesics.”

First Lt. Jessica Larson, a physician assistant with 307th Brigade Support Battalion, said she and her female Army medics treated many cases of menstrual cramping and arthritis among women; and among children, strep throat, diarrhea and eczema issues associated with poor water quality.
Kubaysah’s water is pumped in from the Euphrates River in Hit, but power issues often limit the amount of potable water available to townspeople, said the mayor. Like many nearby towns, Kubaysah gets power from Haditha Dam, which currently has only one of six turbines in use.

“There are a lot of chronic issues that we’re not able to address,” said Larson. “Obviously, there’s difficulty in turning people away and telling them that we’re not able to help them. Then there’s the reaction when you are able to help someone, you can see the appreciation on his or her faces.

“One of the most satisfying things is when we are able to educate them on what’s going on with their bodies; a simple fix,” she said.

According to Brodie, the town has only the one medical clinic, where the event was held. A surgeon from the hospital in Hit, Dr. Ahmed, visits the clinic at least twice a week.

Ahmed was one of the providers at the event.

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