Healing the wounds of war

"I was in the middle of playing a ball game with a friend, and it got thrown on a pile of rubbish. When I went to get it, I stepped on a bags lying on the ground, and there was an explosion. It killed my friend and I lost a leg," the words of Ahmed, an Iraqi boy being treated for his own wounds, an injured leg, in Amman.

For children the psychological scars aren’t always clear but Dr Mohamed Awwad, a psychologist working with MSF in Jordan, the danger is that later the traumatic memories will come back to haunt them and so long term support should be given.

This week HEALTH focuses on the work of doctors and nurses in one hospital in Amman who treat patients coming from war torn Iraq. An average of 40 new patients arrive every month, nearly half of which have severe bone and wound infections in injuries that have been left untreated for some time already. Often resistant to antibiotics they are vulnerable and represent a real challenge for doctors.

Raed lost his arm when a shell exploded beside him. So far he has had twenty seven operations to try and repair the wounds.  “Bomb fragments were the most painful to bear... A 15 centimetre fragment pierced my arm... And came out through the back... In order to operate on it they had to take muscles, arteries, and bone off my leg,” he says.

His doctor is Dr Ali Mohammed, who has being working at the MSF hospital in Amman since 2005 when he fled his home country, Iraq, after receiving threats. “I came to Jordan after I had to leave Iraq. I had no other choice... I received a phone call telling me to leave.
Someone called me and ordered me to flee the country. He said it was a matter of life or death. I gathered my belongings and left within 2 two days,” Dr Mohammed remembers.

While he hopes to return home one day for now he does his best to care for his wounded compatriots who cross into Jordan for care.

The Iraqis who travel to Jordan often have to stay many months for treatment. They are housed in a hotel not far from the hospital and its there that the psychological scars are also taken into account.