Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T19:05:41.179Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Maintaining Baseline, Corrective Surgical Care during Asymmetrical Warfare: A Case Study of a Humanitarian Mission in the Safe Zone of a Neighboring Country

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

K.A. Kelly McQueen ,
Frederick M. Burkle Jr. ,
Eaman T. Al-Gobory  and
Christopher C. Anderson
K.A. Kelly McQueen*
Affiliation:
Fellow, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts USA
Frederick M. Burkle Jr.
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard School of Public Health, Professor and Director, Asia-Pacific Center for Biosecurity, Disaster & Conflict Research, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii USA
Eaman T. Al-Gobory
Affiliation:
National Medical Officer, International Organization for Migration, Jordan
Christopher C. Anderson
Affiliation:
International Development Manager, Middle East, Operation Smile, Inc., Norfolk, Virginia USA
*
4134 N 49th Place Phoenix, Arizona 85018 USA E-mail: kellymcqueen@msn.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The current insurgency warfare in Iraq is of an unconventional or asymmetrical nature. The deteriorating security has resulted in problems recovering and maintaining essential health services. Before the 2003 war, Iraq was considered a developed country with the capacity to routinely perform baseline medical and surgical care. These procedures now are performed irregularly, if at all. Due to the unconventional warfare, traditional Military Medical Civilian Assistance Programs (MEDCAPs) and civilian humanitarian missions, which routinely are mobilized post-conflict, are unable to function. In December 2005, an international medical mission conducted by the Operation Smile International Chapter in neighboring Jordan employed civilian physicians and nurses to provide surgery and post-operative care for Iraqi children with newly diagnosed cleft lip and palates and the complications that had occurred from previous surgical repair. Seventy-one children, their families, and a team of Iraqi physicians were safely transported to Jordan and returned to Iraq across the Iraqi western province war zone. Although complications may occur during transport, treatment within a safe zone is a solution for providing services in an insecure environment.

Keywords

civil-militarycorrective surgerydisaster managementhumanitarian assistancesecuritywarfare
Type
Special Report
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , February 2007 , pp. 3 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Protocols of the 4th Geneva Convention, 1949. International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, Switzerland.Google Scholar
2.Moll, J: CSIS Report. No End for Mideast Violence. United Press International. 09 August 2001.Google Scholar
3.Burkle, FM: Delta Medical: A fitting memorial. US Naval Institute Proceedings 1970;96:36–39.Google Scholar
4.Knickerbocker, B: World Health Organization Counts Civilian Casualties.Christian Science Monitor 31 March 2004. Available at http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0331/p15s01-wogi.html. Accessed 11 July 2006.Google Scholar
5.Burkle, FM: Globalization and disasters: Public health, state capacity and political action.J Int Aff 2006;52(2):241–256.Google Scholar
6.Struck, D: Professionals Fleeing Iraq as Violence, Threats Persist. Washington Post Foreign Service 23 January 2006.Google Scholar
7.Driftmeyer, J, Llewellyn, C: Military training and humanitarian and civic assistance.Mil Med 2004;169 1(23):23–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Driftmeyer, JE, Llewellyn, CH: Overview of Humanitarian Assistance, Humanitarian Civic Assistance and Excess Property Programs. Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine Publication 02–01, MDA # 905–99-M-0726;2002:pp 1–32.Google Scholar
9.Smith, A, Llewellyn, C: Humanitarian medical assistance in US foreign policy: Is there a constructive role for military medical services? The Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management Journal 1992;10:70–78.Google Scholar
10. Operation Smile. Available at http://www.operationsmile.org. Accessed 22 February 2006.Google Scholar
11. Personal e-mail communication 20 January 2006 with Col Thomas Crabtree, USA long-term Operation Smile volunteer deployed to Iraq June to December 2005.Google Scholar
12. Integrated Regional Information Networks News Organization: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 04 May 2005.Google Scholar
13. Personal e-mail communication 01 January 2006 with Manal Wazani, Executive Director of Operation Smile Jordan, Amman, Jordan.Google Scholar
14.Burkle, F: Complex humanitarian emergencies: A review of epidemiological and response models.J Postgrad Med 2006;52:109–114.Google ScholarPubMed
15. International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cross. Accessed 17 July 2006.Google Scholar
16. Human Rights Watch Report. Off Target: The Conduct of the War and Civilian Casualties in Iraq: 2003. Available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/usa1203/. Accessed 22 February 2006.Google Scholar
17.Jones, S, Hilborne, L, Anthony, CR,et al:Securing Health: Lessons from Nation-Building Missions. Santa Monica: Rand Center for Domestic and International Health Security, 2006, pp 187–196.Google Scholar
18. Attacks on Humanitarian Workers. Available at http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacks_on_humanitarian_workers. Accessed 22 February 2006.Google Scholar
19.Jervis, R: Plan for clinics in Iraq at risk.USA Today 02 February 2006.Google Scholar
20. Personal e-mail communication 01 January 2006 with Dr. Ahmed Abdulla, Al-Wasity Hospital for Reconstructive Surgery, Baghdad, Iraq.Google Scholar
21.Madhani, A: Iraq Health Care so Bad that Doctors Want Out. Chicago Tribune 05 October 2005.Google Scholar
22.Stone, R: Targeted for murder, Iraqi scientists named on a hit list. Science 2006;312:1857–1858.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
23.Hoover, E, Cole-Hoover, G, Berry, PK,et al: Private volunteer medical organizations: How effective are they? J Natl Med Assoc 2005;97(2):270–275.Google Scholar
24.Wolfberg, A: Volunteering overseas: Lessons from the surgical brigades.N Engl J Med 2006;354(5):443–444.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
25.Einterz, E: International aid and medical practice in the less-developed world: Doing it right.Lancet 2001;357:1524–1525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
26.Dupuis, C: Humanitarian missions in the third world: A polite dissent. Plast Reconst Surg 2004;113(1):433–435.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
27.Compton, C: “Baby Noor” arrives in Atlanta for Health Care.The Atlantic Journal Constitution 31 December 2005.Google Scholar
28.Burkle, F, McGrady, K, Newett, SL,et al: Complex humanitarian emergencies III. Measures of effectiveness.Prehosp Disast Med 1995;10(1):48–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
29.Driftmeyer, J, Llewellyn, C: Toward more effective humanitarian assistance.Mil Med 2004;169(3):161–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar