Report from Iraq chaplain...

During the Monday to Tuesday night shift two Iraqi children arrived to the emergency room accompanied by their father. A mortar had landed where the children were playing. Mom had non life threatening injuries and stayed behind. The blast killed a child cousin and critically injured the 4 and 6 year old brother and sister with life threatening head traumas. The heroic medical personnel worked skillfully and with urgency to save the kids. The Iraqi father waited with a sad worry on his face as the neurosurgeons performed surgery on his only two children. I visited the dad with an Iraqi translator who helped us communicate. When the 4 year old girl left surgery, the Arab speaking military American doctor gave the father the sad news that they had done all they could but his dear 4 year old daughter was dying.

The Muslim Arabic translator led the Muslim dad in emergency Islamic prayers for the dying. The male nurse placed the little girl in her father's arms and the surgeon cut the bandages off of her eyes so that the dad could look into her eyes once more. The dad sobbed as he spoke to his little girl for hours as she slowly faded away. I sat by him for a while and put my arm around him. As I left the dad told me "Thank you". I replied "You are welcome". When the little girl died, the dad left her lifeless body and went to the ICU ward to be by his remaining 6 year old son who was now out of surgery.

The emotionally drained nursing staff tenderly cleaned the body of the little girl. They wrapped the girl in a white cloth and placed her in a body bag designed to fit a large soldier. One nurse exhaled deeply when it was over. Another was very visibly moved. He has a daughter the same age.

I hope the dad knows that we have grieved with him. One nurse told me today that she wanted to visit "her little boy" that has survived. In the midst of the tragedy of war , the life of this little boy has been saved by a heroic medical staff but his life is still in God's hands. Let us pray for this boy, his grieving family, the combat medics that face trauma daily, all of our deployed troops, and the nation of Iraq caught in violence of insurgency.