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CNN Live Sunday
Iraqi Health Care System Overtaxed
Aired December 21, 2003 - 10:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, ANCHOR: Ongoing violence is draining Iraq's already overburdened health care system.
Satinder Bindra visited with doctors in Baghdad who said the system may finally be at the breaking point.
And we have a warning for our viewers. Some of the images in this report are disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A cry for help from a help system in tatters. This is the trauma center in one of Baghdad's busiest hospitals.
After years of war and sanctions, medical equipment, generators and most importantly, morale are all in short supply. Here doctors used a brick to give this child's broken leg traction and complain they're getting swamped because of all of the continuing violence.
ZIAD AMIR, PHYSICIAN (through translator): During the night we have to deal with explosion wounds, bullet wounds, burns and internal injuries. We also see cases of angina and brain strokes daily.
BINDRA: Doctor Zaid Amir says the primitive situation at his hospital needs closer examination.
AMIR (through translator): If you go to our operation theaters you'll see the same miserable conditions. Even the equipment we get is ineffective.
BINDRA: Elsewhere in Iraq, conditions are even more desperate. Several large cities lack basic care facilities.
So when Shaki Bevri (ph) almost severed his arm in an industrial accident, a hundred kilometers south of Baghdad, he was transferred to this already overcrowded city hospital.
(on camera) Coalition authorities claim Iraq's health care system is already backed with pre-war capabilities. They say 240 hospitals across the country are now operational. There's 100,000 health care professionals, and doctors are better paid.
(voice-over) But doctors insist conditions are just as bad as before.
AMIR (through translator): I feel sad my country is being destroyed. I feel sad patients are not getting the care they expected.
BINDRA: Doctor Zaid Amir says he's now suffering from nightmares.
He understands next year Iraq's health budget will jump manifold to almost $1 billion. That money may already be too late for many Iraqis.
Dr. Amir says nervous tension and exhaustion have just driven two of his patients to suicide.
Satinder Bindra, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 21, 2003 - 10:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, ANCHOR: Ongoing violence is draining Iraq's already overburdened health care system.
Satinder Bindra visited with doctors in Baghdad who said the system may finally be at the breaking point.
And we have a warning for our viewers. Some of the images in this report are disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A cry for help from a help system in tatters. This is the trauma center in one of Baghdad's busiest hospitals.
After years of war and sanctions, medical equipment, generators and most importantly, morale are all in short supply. Here doctors used a brick to give this child's broken leg traction and complain they're getting swamped because of all of the continuing violence.
ZIAD AMIR, PHYSICIAN (through translator): During the night we have to deal with explosion wounds, bullet wounds, burns and internal injuries. We also see cases of angina and brain strokes daily.
BINDRA: Doctor Zaid Amir says the primitive situation at his hospital needs closer examination.
AMIR (through translator): If you go to our operation theaters you'll see the same miserable conditions. Even the equipment we get is ineffective.
BINDRA: Elsewhere in Iraq, conditions are even more desperate. Several large cities lack basic care facilities.
So when Shaki Bevri (ph) almost severed his arm in an industrial accident, a hundred kilometers south of Baghdad, he was transferred to this already overcrowded city hospital.
(on camera) Coalition authorities claim Iraq's health care system is already backed with pre-war capabilities. They say 240 hospitals across the country are now operational. There's 100,000 health care professionals, and doctors are better paid.
(voice-over) But doctors insist conditions are just as bad as before.
AMIR (through translator): I feel sad my country is being destroyed. I feel sad patients are not getting the care they expected.
BINDRA: Doctor Zaid Amir says he's now suffering from nightmares.
He understands next year Iraq's health budget will jump manifold to almost $1 billion. That money may already be too late for many Iraqis.
Dr. Amir says nervous tension and exhaustion have just driven two of his patients to suicide.
Satinder Bindra, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
