Colonel goes extra mile to help Bosnian girl, family with medical expenses
By Anthony Burgos,
Bosnia bureau
Ivana Avramovic / Stars and Stripes
Col. Chuck Stutts gives out calendars to school children at the Civilian Military
Cooperation house in Tuzla, Bosnia. |
TUZLA, Bosnia and Herzegovina — When Col. Chuck Stutts came to
Bosnia, he knew his job would make a difference in the local community.
As the officer in charge of the Civilian Military Cooperation House
in Tuzla, part of his job is to link people in need with relief organizations that can
provide aid. But the Army reservist didn’t expect to become so personally involved in
helping one particular family.
That changed one day in March when Semsija Tomovic walked by the
house and was stopped by one of the translators who worked there. During their
conversation, Tomovic asked if someone there could tell her how to get medicine for her
1-year-old daughter, Zumra, who was suffering from a bad cold.
Stutts was thousands of miles from his family back home in
John’s Island, S.C. But he made a connection with the little girl and took her
situation to heart. “When I saw the baby, I saw my granddaughter Marina, who is about
the same age. I knew I had to do something for her.”
The CIMIC house staff got her free medicine through a
non-governmental organization. “But I told her to come back to let us know how things
were going,” Stutts said.
They weren’t going well.
During Tomovic’s second visit to Tuzla, Stutts got the full
story on the family’s desperate situation. Tomovic is reluctant to talk about her
husband. But she also has a son in second grade and another younger boy. Her home in
Djedino, a remote village near Stupari, is falling apart. The family’s only income
comes from the wild strawberries she picks when they are in season, and wood she cuts and
sells. She makes only about $17 a month at best.
“I go hungry, but I do everything I can to make sure the
children are fed,” Tomovic said. “It’s awful and I am embarrassed,”
she said of taking the charity. “But I am glad for the help.”
But that isn’t the worst part of the story. Zumra is trying to
walk now, but a deformity commonly referred to as club foot is preventing that.
Stutts decided to get personally involved. Although the Bosnian
medical system pays for the child’s treatment, it won’t cover the costs for her
mother to stay with her at the hospital or the expense of getting her there. A bus ride
costs about $2.50 each way.
“The only things they had was on their backs,” Stutts said.
So, he and the staff at the CIMIC house came up with the money to
send the mother and child to a Sarajevo hospital for initial tests. “It’s just
something I had to do.”
Stutts paid for transportation and the cost for the mother to stay at
the hospital. Other staff members came up with some money to purchase toiletries,
underwear and clothing at a local market. Tomovic stayed with her daughter at the hospital
for five days, but had to leave during two weeks of tests so she could return home to her
family.
Zumra’s initial checkup revealed that the girl was anemic, had a
staph infection and blood in her urine, as well as a heart murmur. The girl needed
medication and a healthy diet to improve her condition before starting any corrective
surgery.
Tomovic got the medicine and healthy food needed to boost her
child’s health with help from the CIMIC house.
Dr. Boris Bacic, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon from Tuzla, is
scheduled to perform the surgery this week.
“The sooner the better, because she’s already 14 months old
and time is running out,” he said, explaining such surgery is harder the older a
child gets.
“Nothing is 100 percent effective. At best this will be 85 to 90
percent effective at correcting the disorder,” Bacic said. “The longer we wait,
that percentage will drop. And a more complicated surgery, involving cutting the
child’s bones, has an even lower percentage of success.”
The Tuzla CIMIC house is scheduled to close in July and Stutts’
rotation ends in early August.
So the timing was welcome news.
“[The surgery] is something she’s going to benefit from for
the rest of her life,” Stutts said. “It’s hard enough growing up here,
finding employment and just getting by. For people with a disability, it’s even
harder. People with a handicap have no chance.”
Stutts won’t be around to see the long-term results.
“She’ll be in casts for two months and splints for a
year,” said Bacic. The child will also need lots of physical therapy.
Although the medical bills are covered by the government, traveling
back and forth will be difficult and expensive for the mother and child. “This type
of care is not offered in her village. This case is very difficult.”
On Wednesday, Zumra and her mother sat at a table in Stutts’
office. Smiling and laughing, the baby tried to get up on her curved feet, seemingly
unaware of her deformity. But her mother thinks she is aware that something is going on.
“She is afraid of doctors,” she said. Zumra’s tiny
arms are bruised from the delicate blood vessels that broke while tests were done at the
hospital.
“She wouldn’t let me pull her sleeve up for blood
tests,” Tomovic said. “But she recognized the colonel and other workers.
Especially the ones who give her candy and toys.”
Someone at the CIMIC house gave Zumra a grape lollipop during her
visit.
When the half-eaten candy became a toy for the toddler, Stutts
moistened some paper towels and cleaned up the sticky purple mess on her hands and face.
Zumra wasn’t intimidated by the 5-foot-11-inch soldier.
In an instant, the colonel in camouflage goes into grandfather mode.
“It’s easy to see why I had to get involved,” Stutts said as Zumra looked
up and giggled.
“She’s just cute as can be.”
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