The Foreign Service Journal, December 2004

says orthopedic surgeon Tim Gibbons, M.D., an Iowa National Guard Reservist on active duty with the Medical Brigade in Iraq. “Intimidation by the ruling party was ever-present at all levels.” Professional organizations had become pawns of Saddam Hussein’s government. Medicine and resources were strictly controlled by the regime, which favored the party loyalists, and discussion of issues and sharing of knowledge did not exist. The Medical Forum Initiative Is Born As the “official” war ended last year, the idea for the “Iraqi Medical Specialty Forum” was born. The inspi- ration came from the U.S. military, the idea was endorsed by the Coalition Provisional Authority, and funding was secured. Dr. Shakir Al-Ainachi, a Baghdad orthopedic surgeon and president of the Iraqi Society of Physicians, stepped forth on the Iraqi side. The ISP’s role under Dr. Shakir was to organize the Iraqi medical community into independent professional medical spe- cialty societies. The ISP would co-host the forum in cooperation with the Iraqi Governing Council, the Coalition Provisional Authority, the Combined Joint Task Force 7 Medical Command and USAID. Announcements of the plans to hold an international medical forum were sent out by e-mail to medical soci- eties in the U.S. and the U.K. (which had governed the country prior to its independence in 1932). Col. Donald Gagliano, commander of the Medical Brigade in Iraq, assigned Major Gibbons as military liaison to Dr. Shakir, and Gibbons played a key role in managing the international component of the plan, fundraising, sponsorship, security and other logistical considerations. Dr. Michael Brennan, a retired mili- tary ophthalmologist then back in practice in North Carolina, was brought in to assist in connecting with doctors and encouraging participation in the confer- ence. Brennan and Gibbons visited doctors in hospitals in Kurdistan, Mosul, Babylon, Al Hillah, and virtually every major hospital in Baghdad. Dr. Brennan later said that for the role he played, being independent of the government was an advantage: it was better that he did not belong to either the Army or the Coalition Provisional Authority. Meanwhile, daily media reports on Iraq highlighted continued fighting, destroyed facilities, lack of essential services and general unrest — Baghdad seemed an unlikely venue for an international conference. Moreover, a campaign by insurgents against Iraq’s pro- fessional class — including doctors — had opened up. For security reasons the four-day event was shrouded in secrecy. At the last minute the forum was moved from Medical City, a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Baghdad College of Medicine, to the more secure Baghdad Convention Center, located within the Green Zone (now known as the “International Zone” under the new Iraqi government). An Optimistic Beginning The American and British doctors, who took up the challenge of participating in the forum, flew into Jordan and then into Baghdad. Their expectations were heavi- ly influenced by continuous media reports, but many were experienced in the advocacy role of U.S. medical societies, and all were willing to share their knowledge with their Iraqi counterparts. What they found was a country devastated by war but basking in newfound freedom. And, they were, by all accounts, overwhelmed by the resilience of their Iraqi colleagues. A May 28 article in the San Francisco Chronicle reflects the collective observations of the 30 American physicians who participated in the Iraqi Medical Specialty Forum. It was authored by Drs. Bernard S. Alpert, Ira D. Sharlip, Thomas C. Cromwell and Assad A. Hassoun, four Bay-area physicians who participated in the Baghdad conference. The following is an excerpt: “We found a nation of Rip Van Winkle-like physi- cians. Their governmentally-imposed developmental arrest prompted in them an exemplary resilience. Operations are performed competently by surgeons never having seen one, mimicking late-1970s Western texts. Masks are worn for weeks, and gloves are rester- ilized for successive use. Conditions in some hospitals are deplorable. “Yet, with infrastructure decimation, educational repression, equipment and supply depletion and pro- fessional isolation, these proud and courageous healers care for the sick and injured of their nation with integri- ty, tenacity, hope and a smile. Our Iraqi colleagues dis- played an optimism whose flame by now should have been extinguished from 25 years of energy-depleting assaults. One obstetrician declared: ‘We are like a caged bird … We now have been let out of the cage but don’t know how to fly. We can either go back to the cage or get help learning how to fly.’” F O C U S 32 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 4