Maj. Catherine Haverty, 3rd Civil Affairs Battalion, Detachment 1, a registered nurse, checks out a baby boy. The mother was concerned about a lump on the child's chest. Photo by Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky, 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

MADHARIYAH

Artillerymen of 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, and Paratroopers from 1st Battalion, 40th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, provided medical care from an abandoned veterinary clinic in Madhariyah.

Iraqi Army (IA) troops joined the Americans, lending medics, translators and security.

"We came in and secured the sight with the IA," said Capt. Dave Underwood, commander, 1-9 FAR.

Iraqi and Coalition troops also handed out items to improve local residents’ quality of life, including clothes, sandals, toys for children, and hygiene items such as soaps, shampoos, tooth paste and tooth brushes. Feminine hygiene items were also provided to local women.

With the new school year coming soon, school-aged children were given supplies such as pens, pencils, paper and book bags.

"We want the Iraqi people to know that we care and that we are doing as much as we can for them. We haven't forgotten about them," said Maj. Catherine Haverty, 3rd Civil Affairs Battalion, Detachment 1.

The event was an initial step in a larger project that could bring more permanent medical care to the region.

"We're hoping to turn this into a local clinic," said Capt. Daniel Joyce, 1-40th Cav. Regt. battalion surgeon. "We are working on a Commander's Emergency Response Programs (CERP) project to get power and water here.”

Most importantly, the region needs doctors. Currently, four local Iraqi doctors and a female obstetrics/gynecology doctor have been identified as possible candidates to work at the proposed clinic.

"We are working with them right now to figure out their schedules; try to work it so they can come in and work with residents to reinvigorate the health care system here," Underwood said.

Working with Iraqis will put an Iraqi face on the mission and make the clinic truly an Iraqi enterprise, he added.

Although Coalition forces will continue to provide medicine for the clinic, the medicine will be purchased through a local Iraqi company, Haverty said. She expects the medicine to arrive within 10 days.

"It makes you feel pretty good," Joyce said. "It shows we care enough to come out here. They are going to remember an American doctor looked at my baby and said ‘he is OK.’"

Even with limited resources, Joyce, who has a background as a family doctor, Haverty, an emergency room nurse with 35 years experience, and an Iraqi army medic, Sgt. Maj. Kalid Latif Miza, were able to examine several patients and view common problems in the area.

"Most of the illnesses are minor," Haverty said. "Most of them are skin, bug bites, aches and pains from arthritis, and rashes."

Overall, 106 men, 43 women and 153 children were examined, the youngest being a baby born less than 12-hours prior to the event.

The infant, who had a bump on his chest, was examined by both Haverty and Joyce. They believed the child's diaphragm had shifted to the left, causing the bump. The injury was not serious and should disappear as the child grows older, the medical professionals agreed.

Haverty said the people were generally healthy and that most problems could be solved through proper hygiene and minor medications.

(U.S. Army story by Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky, 2nd Brigade Combat Team)

In other developments throughout Iraq:

•           Coalition airpower supported Coalition ground forces in Iraq and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in the following operations Monday, according to Combined Air and Space Operations Center officials here.

•           Iraqi Army forces detained two suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq cell leaders during an intelligence driven raid in support of Operation Phantom Strike Monday, in the Sharqat village in northern Iraq.