Combat Nurses: Intermediate Care Ward

Published Jan. 30, 2008
By Tech. Sgt. D. Clare
332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq -- Few patients stay at the Air Force Theater Hospital for more than a few days. But injured Iraqis and non-critical coalition forces members may remain for longer periods in the Intermediate Care Ward.

Many are Americans with wounds or illnesses that won't keep them out of action for too long. Most, however, are Iraqis who don't have any other place to go.

Maj. Rebecca Cypher has seen many come and go. All leave an impression on her, but few have changed her perspective quite like one little boy.

His name was Saddam, and everyone called him "Little Saddam." To Major Cypher, clinical nurse at the ICW, he was a special project.

He came to the Air Force Theater Hospital here with head injuries and severe facial lacerations. According to initial reports, his entire family had been killed in an insurgent mortar blast to their home. The boy's memories of what happened were hazy.

He told interpreters the most he could remember was being pulled through a window by U.S. Soldiers before arriving at the hospital.

Throughout his treatment, Major Cypher and a handful of other nurses and hospital volunteers had taken him under their wings.

"His name was very ironic. There's the Saddam who we think of -- the person who is ultimately responsible for some of the destructions of this country," she says. "And then there's this innocent child named Saddam who just wanted to grow up and be a pilot. Trying to put the two together didn't match."

As word filtered out into the community from military sources looking for surviving family members, Saddam's mother stepped forward. The story became more complete. The boy, they discovered, had actually been traveling with his father when an improvised explosive device struck their vehicle.

The father was killed by the blast that wounded young Saddam. Based on the destruction of their vehicle, the child's mother was certain there was nothing left of her son.

The major was there the day the two were reunited.

"People were concerned about me because I had become so attached to him. Ultimately, seeing him reunited with his mother was one of the most moving things to happen to me here," she says. "I was introduced as a 'second mom.' To be hugged by a woman who appreciates that you took such good care of her child was incredibly rewarding."

Major Cypher and her fellow ICW nurses are the rare few at the hospital who get to see many of their patients make full recoveries. She's constantly on the go, providing a wide variety of care and services for Americans and wounded Iraqis.

"It can be challenging because you're getting pulled in different directions. You have people crying out in pain who want meds. You have children who are hungry. You have people who want to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. You have to constantly prioritize what is most important at the time," she says.

All the while, she says she knows the care she and her team provide may be a critical link in building relationships with the Iraqi people.

"Based on their facial expressions and their words, I believe they are thankful," she says. "They leave knowing we took care of them and medicated them and sent them away with the things they need before they go."

A labor and delivery nurse by trade, the experience has allowed her to branch out professionally.

"It's easy in our field to get into a rut. It's a little bit more rewarding when you watch a child who's been here for three weeks go home with a family and be healthy, or seeing a man with severe injuries to his legs who can walk home on crutches," she says.

"Being here has helped me understand again why I became a nurse. It's brought home again what I'm all about."

Note: This is the final installment of a five part series by Tech. Sgt. D. Clare titled "Combat Nurses." The entire series is available online at www.balad.afnews.af.mil.

USAF. (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez)