Children’s hospital struggling in wake of bombing

The country’s main children’s hospital is operating at less than one third of its full capacity after a bomb attack just over a month ago, say doctors. The Children’s Central Teaching Hospital in the capital, Baghdad, was hit by a suicide bomb targeting a police official on 19 December. Two security guards and ten staff members were injured in the attack. "The explosion hit the emergency clinic causing major damage in the surgical departments, laboratories and patients’ rooms, and destroyed much of the medical equipment,” said hospital director Shehab Ahmed al-Azawi. The teaching hospital, which avoided being hit in past conflicts, is Iraq’s only hospital specialised in children’s medicine. Al-Azawi added that all surgical procedures had been cancelled since the attack, requiring urgent operations to be carried out in other hospitals not specialised in children’s health care. Following the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in March 2003, the hospital was refurbished and supplied with equipment and medicines by several international organisations, such as the Italian Red Cross, the UN Children’s Fund, the World Health Organisation and the United Arab Emirates’ Red Crescent Society. “Even with all the repairs, the hospital was still suffering from shortages of equipment, oxygen bottles and medicine,” said Dr Maha Bashi, a technical manager at the hospital. “After the attack, though, the hospital found itself in a critical condition.” Bashi went on to note that the number of available beds has fallen from 365 to only 100. According to al-Azawi, equipment salvaged from the bombing is now lying on the ground or on tables that have been temporarily set up in the corridors of the hospital. Meanwhile, a sign hanging at the entrance apologising for unavoidable delays is providing little solace for desperate parents. "My child is only one year old and has suffered a lot because we had to travel 15 km to get here,” said Salem Hameed. “The long queue is making him worse, but I have no another choice because it’s the only place specialised in asthma cases.” Ahmed Abdul Kader, an official from the Ministry of Health, said that rebuilding the hospital would require about US $10 million dollars, adding that the Spanish government had offered some funding.