The Patriot Files Forums - Letter from Afghanistan

Here's an email to a good friend of mine from her son who is stationed in Afghanistan, dated 7 Sep 2006:

Quote:

Hi [Folks]. Things have been going kinda slow this week (that means business has been good). With the extra free time we?ve been catching up on our outstanding skin grafts for our burned kids. We knocked out 3 burn kids over the last three days on the waiting list with a perfect outcome, and all our skin grafts over the last two weeks (8 kids) have taken perfectly. Today besides the normal outpatient follow up?s we only had two trauma?s. One was an ANA (Afghan National Army) was a GSW to the thigh (Blackhawk Down Wound) and after 5 hours in the O.R. we saved his leg. The second one was a 5 year old boy with fingers versus tractor fan blade (?he lost?) one-half finger, but we saved the second affected finger entirely (talk about the neurovascular improvising we did to pull that one off). We saw ?Boots? on Monday and she can now walk without crutches. Boots if you remember is the 5-6ish girl who the Taliban held her feet in a fire till all of their toes were burned off. Rumor has it that the local villagers I.D.?d one of the attackers and killed him on the spot not too long ago. We also saw one of our first Thalasemia cases, a kid we call Shack. It?s been almost 7 months since we took out his spleen and he still hasn?t needed a blood transfusion. Our Local Afghan surgical Residency Program is now all the rage in the Province. We trained one of the Afghan surgeons on how to do a Thyroidectomy and now he?s taking out Goiters at Provincial Hospital (Teach ?em how to Fish is the plan). And I even now have 3 Medical Students working nearly full time in my clinic. OK, on to the current ?we need? list. We are being flooded with burned kids again (mix of Taliban attacks and accidents, thankfully it?s been mostly accidents), so we desperately need (1) Baby Bottles and Formula, and (2) Diapers of every size although we need the size that would fit an average American kid that?s about 12-18 months old. (3) Flip-Flops are also still in need. ? Oh yeah, if you know any doctors or hospitals that have any surplus Medical Textbooks (of any kind, anatomy texts, whatever) the Medical Students here are in desperate need for them, even if they are outdated. Same would go for any medical equipment. Provincial Hospital is like practicing in the 18th century. They would be appreciative for anything. Well I gotta jet. ?

If you are able to send anything, please PM me and I will give you the address. Thanks a lot!