Staff Sgt. Brady Love pricks the finger of a 78-year-old woman with a history of high blood pressure and possibly diabetes. Her blood results were within normal limits. (Sandra Jontz / Stars and Stripes)
SKHARTIAT, Iraq — Wish as he might, Capt. Jon Christensen can’t cure them all. But if nothing else, he can help alleviate their discomfort.
Time and again, the 36-year-old physician’s assistant and his crew of medics from 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division visit impoverished towns and villages that pepper Ninevah Province to bring medical supplies and knowledge that, if even for a short time, dissolve the aches of arthritis, burden of birth defects, hurt of heart disease.
“The thing we’re doing is trying to win the hearts and minds,” said Staff Sgt. Chuck Lanham, 43. “I know people don’t like that phrase anymore, but there’s no simpler way to describe it.”
Medics save lives, not take them, they said. Even soldier medics.
And so early Wednesday morning, the crew hopped into their specially configured Stryker armored vehicle and set out for a more than two-hour drive to Skhartiat to visit eight patients in a village of around 200 residents.
They treated a 70-year-old man who likely, based on the symptoms he described through a translator, had an enlarged prostrate and urinary tract infection, in addition to a skyrocketing blood pressure that worried Christensen.
“Tell him he has to see a doctor as soon as possible,” he told the translator to relay. “Immediately, if possible. He needs to see a doctor.”
But doctors are hard to come by, if they come at all. Three days earlier, an Iraqi pediatrician visited Skhartiat.
“He was here just for babies,” 17-year-old Gmaq Agag Aoda said.
When was the last time a doctor came for adults?
“Never,” he replied.
Iraqi doctors aren’t trusted by villagers, Christensen said. They are thought to give medication just for the sake of dispensing medication. But it’s not always the doctors’ fault.
A handful of Skhartiat’s residents, for example, can’t read, which makes it hard to follow a prescription. Some can’t afford medical bills. Others have no vehicle to get to the larger towns and cities.
So they suffer. They ache. They cough. They battle diarrhea. They limp. They go blind. They compensate.
And in some places, they wait for the Americans.
Staff Sgt. Brady Love pricks the finger of a 78-year-old woman with a history of high blood pressure and possibly diabetes. Her blood results were within normal limits. (Sandra Jontz / Stars and Stripes)
While medics treat patients inside a home in Skhartiat, Iraq, on Wednesday, Spc. Ian Johnson, with 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery's Battle Aid Station hands a Barbie doll to a little girl. (Sandra Jontz / Stars and Stripes)
When visiting Iraqi villages to provide medical care, medics with 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery bring several kinds of medications to treat patients suffering from common ailments such as infections, stomach problems and headaches. (Sandra Jontz / Stars and Stripes)
Capt. Jon Christensen, with 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery, examines the foot of a 70-year-old patient complaining that his limbs often went from hot to cold. (Sandra Jontz / Stars and Stripes)
Capt. Jon Christensen examines the eyes of a 17-year-old patient who complained of a gritty feeling in his eyes and super sensitivity to sunlight. The teen's eyes might have been damaged by exposure to sharp rays bouncing off the sands of Iraq, similar to snow blindness that skiers face. (Sandra Jontz / Stars and Stripes)
