Dr. (Capt.) Matthew J. Carter, held Qais Abbas, better known as Abbasi, earlier this month. Carter, a pediatrician at the Capt. John Teal Medical Facility at Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Baqouba, Iraq, was trying to get approval for Abbasi to be flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for treatment. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
BAQOUBA, Iraq — A sick Iraqi boy being treated by U.S. soldiers pending permission for medical care in the United States died early Sunday in a Baghdad military hospital.
Qais Abbas, known as Abbasi, turned 3 on March 10 at the Teal Medical Facility at Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Baqouba. A few days later he was flown to Baghdad for treatment at the 86th Combat Support Hospital. Using equipment found in storage, doctors there diagnosed him as having visceral leishmaniasis, an immune-deficiency disease contracted by the bite of an infected sand fly.
Permission for Abbasi to be taken to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for treatment was being pursued through diplomatic and military channels, according to Dr. (Capt.) Matthew Carter of Company C, 203rd Forward Support Battalion, which operates the Teal clinic.
Carter had flown with the boy to Baghdad. On March 14, Abbasi was flown by helicopter from Baghdad to the nearby air base at Balad for what was believed to be a flight to Washington, Carter said.
But when it was discovered that approval had not yet been granted, the boy was returned to Baghdad the next day.
“There was a paperwork mix-up,” Carter said a few days later. “It probably happens when one division is transferring a tank to another division. Nobody really knows who the tank belongs to.”
Abbasi was the grandson of a local sheik at a village near Baqouba. The sheik had been friendly with U.S. forces.
The sick boy was first noticed by 2nd Lt. Christopher Hale of Company A, 2nd Battalion, 34th Armored Regiment, while Hale was working in the sheik’s village. Hale brought the boy’s condition to the attention of his company’s medic.
The boy, who had already been treated in Iraqi medical facilities, was brought in late February to the Teal clinic at FOB Warhorse.
“It got started with the soldier on the ground,” said Lt. Col. Oscar J. Hall, commander of the 2-34. “[Hale] felt we could do more, that we could make a difference in this boy’s life.”
Among those wanting to help the boy was the mother of the late Capt. John R. Teal, who was killed in action in Baqouba and for whom the Teal Medical Facility is named, and Frances Mayo, the president of Operation AC Inc., a Delaware-based nonprofit organization. The two pledged to pay for Abbasi’s transport to Washington if the government turned down the request.
Mayo said she learned about Abbasi in an article on the Stars and Stripes Web site.
“I called [Mrs. Teal] … and asked her if she wanted me to help this kid,” Mayo wrote in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes. “We want to do this in Captain Teal’s name.”
