Iraq is unable to treat the huge numbers of people wounded in Mosul
Iraq is unable to treat the huge numbers of people wounded in Mosul
By Missy Ryan and Mustafa Salim December 19 at 2:33 AM
GOGJALI, Iraq — More than a dozen times a day, the doctor and his skeleton staff at a makeshift trauma center near Mosul repeat a ritual: identify a wound, try to stabilize it, wait for an ambulance and hope the patient survives the journey to a better-equipped facility up to a two-hour drive away.
Most of the patients were shot by Islamic State snipers or injured when mortar shells hit their homes, and not all of them will make it.
The stopgap medical center is part of a network that Iraqi and international health workers are racing to establish, staff and supply to cope with a tidal wave of critical injuries.
Doctors in an array of medical facilities around Mosul — including military-run field clinics and mobile treatment centers — are struggling to keep up with demand as the offensive against the Islamic State grinds on...
