Iraq: caring for patients with unhealed wounds

11 November 2019

The day Saad’s life changed forever started like any other. The 46-year-old man was beginning his day in Mosul, Iraq, where his family has lived for generations. “It was an incredibly hot, overcast morning, like lots of days,” he remembers. But as he walked to his car to go to work, a sudden explosion shattered the morning calm.

A bomb had gone off in the neighborhood. The blast was not close enough to kill Saad, but it mangled his leg, fracturing his tibia and ﬁbula. Unconscious, he was rushed to a hospital for surgery. “The ﬁrst surgery I had consisted of inserting an internal ﬁxation into my leg to enable me to walk again,” he said. This surgical method of stabilizing broken bones should have put Saad on the road to healing, but he suffered complications. “The recovery was excruciating,” he said.

Further reading: Docters without borders

Author(s): Docters without borders

Effective Surveillance