Responding to the deadliest coordinated
attack in Iraq since 2007, Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and physicians
trained by International Medical Corps, provided life-saving assistance in
central Baghdad. The two
near-simultaneous suicide car bombings on Sunday caused massive destruction to
the Ministry of Justice and surrounding buildings leaving more than 150 people
dead and close to 600 wounded.
International Medical Corps-trained EMTs,
working under the direction of the Ministry of Health, responded immediately to
the scene to provide care within minutes.
They administered emergency aid to patients scattered among the wreckage
and transferred them to ambulances where they were rushed to local Baghdad
hospitals.
Medical City hospital complex, which houses
the closest hospital to the attack, received more than 150 of the wounded. Newly
trained EMTs and their International Medical Corps trainers stopped in the
middle of a certification ceremony, which was being held at the hospital, and
rushed to aid the victims. Using the
life-saving trauma techniques they had just learned, students resuscitated the
wounded alongside International Medical Corps-trained doctors staffing the main
receiving hospitals.
Madhafar Muhammad, one of the EMT trainees
said, “We suddenly went from finishing the class to using our training on real
injured people…they had blast wounds to the head, chest, and abdomen. The skills we learned in the International
Medical Corps class were very, very helpful. We didn’t know [how] to do any of these things before.”
Despite a history of violence and trauma in
the country, formal emergency care was
previously very limited in Iraq.
Over the last two years, International Medical Corps, with
funding from Australian Agency for International Development and in cooperation
with the Iraqi Ministry of Health, implemented a national emergency medical
care development initiative for the country. This program is the first in-depth
attempt to renovate the civilian emergency infrastructure. To date over 700 EMTs and 200
physicians have received training.
“This is a perfect example of how training
and infrastructure strengthening can provide both immediate emergency response
and sustainable health care improvement,” noted emergency medicine professor
and program director Dr. Ross Donaldson.
“Our hearts go out to the injured and their families.”
International
Medical Corps has been working in Iraq for the past six years, creating
sustainable initiatives focused on health care, humanitarian assistance,
capacity building, and community engagement.
Since
its inception 25 years ago, International Medical Corps’ mission has been to
relieve the suffering of those impacted by war, natural disaster and disease,
by delivering vital health care services that focus on training. This approach
of helping people help themselves is critical to returning devastated
populations to self-reliance. For more information visit our website at www.imcworldwide.org.