Troops provide dental, medical assistance to the residents of Janeen

Photo By Sgt. Robert Yde | 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division dentist, Capt. Christine Ford from Seattle, administers a shot to a boy's gums before performing a tooth extraction during a humanitarian aid mission in Baghdad's Janeen neighborhood July 27.  

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

07.30.2007

Story by Sgt. Robert Yde 

2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs

By Sgt. Robert Yde
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs

BAGHDAD – While in many countries basic dental and medical care may sometimes be taken for granted, for most Iraqis, services such as these are luxuries that are often times unavailable or unaffordable.

To help mitigate this issue, Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, conducted a dental and medical assistance mission in a small village near the neighborhood of Janeen July 27.

More than 100 people received treatment during the humanitarian aid mission, which was conducted in conjunction with dentists from the Iraqi army.

"Today we came to provide medical care for the local nationals and our goal was to restore families and help them with the care that they don't get on an every day basis," explained Capt. Leon Richardson, the physician's assistant with 3-82 FA.

The San Antonio native said that the battalion tries to conduct missions like this at least once every two months, but if time allowed, they would like to be able to do them more often.

"We want to try to pick it up and get out here a little bit more because there's a lot more that needs to be done," he said.

One of the residents, who the Soldiers had worked with before, volunteered the use of his property for the set up of their make-shift clinic.

Richardson set up in a small shaded corner outside the house, while the brigade's dentist, Capt. Christine Ford and her assistant, Spc. Lisa Beasley, used the living room to see their patients.

Along with Ford, two dentists from the Iraqi army, 2nd Lts. Omar Khan and Saleh Faris, were also on hand to provide assistance.

"We were taking care of immediate problems, particularly pain issues, which were mostly extractions," Ford, a native of Seattle, explained. "Most of the patients we saw were mostly tooth pain or gum pain, all coming from poor oral hygiene."

Ford explained to each of her patients how to properly care for their teeth and handed out toothbrushes after treating them.

She said that while it was good that they were able to offer some help, there were several limitations to the type of services she could provide.

"Since we can't bring all our equipment we couldn't do regular fillings or anything like that," Ford said. "It was basically extractions, maybe a quick cleaning or nothing. So our realm was very limited."

Richardson agreed with Ford about the limitations of the types of care he could provide, saying that the best he could do for most people was give them something to try to alleviate whatever pain they were dealing with

"We're just here to treat symptoms," he explained. "Because we can't do a whole lot, we just give them something to help them with the pain. If there's some emergency, we may do some small procedure, but other than that it's just pain control – relieve the symptoms and make them feel better."

He said the most common problems he saw were joint and abdominal pain and allergies, and although he can't cure everybody, just being able to provide a little assistance is a good feeling.

"Whenever you can relieve pain from any patient, it doesn't matter, Americans or local nationals, it's a great feeling," Richardson said. "We touch lives and people leave feeling better."

While Ford and Richardson attended to the patients, Soldiers from Battery A, 3-82 FA maintained order and security outside.

Sgt. Frank Kautz, a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., said that he enjoys taking part in these humanitarian missions, particularly his interaction with the children.

"I love children and I've always loved children," he said. "I like to see smiling faces on kids. The reason I play the games with them and play around with them is it gives them a little entertainment and let's them know we're friendly and doesn't give them a bad impression of us."

While their parents were waiting to be seen, Kautz and other Soldiers organized games for the children and handed out small prizes to the winners.

"Any humanitarian mission that I'm a part of I feel good about myself because I know we made a difference," Kautz said. "It gives the people a good impression that Americans are not here to be harmful, they're here to help, and that's why I always feel good every time I'm a part of something like this. I know I'm here helping people and the people know we're here to help."

• Date Taken: 07.30.2007
• Date Posted: 07.31.2007 08:45
• Story ID: 11537
• Location: BAGHDAD, IQ