Two months prior to leaving for Iraq, I was required to receive training and qualify to use an M-16 in case of emergency. If a doctor is using an M-16 it is a BIG emergency. I met a physician during this training that was going to the same base as I was and she was supposed to work in the ICU. I told her I would see here there. During my time at my base, I had a few requests to screen children in Iraq with heart problems but I was only allowed to see a few due to safety concerns. I also never saw the doctor I had met. I just assumed that she did not deploy. Well, about six weeks ago, I was in Baghdad and eating at one of Saddam’s old palaces, which had been converted into a cafeteria for deployed troops and I ran into the doctor who I met during my training. She ended up deploying as the Physician Liaison to the Iraqi Air Force Surgeon General. We exchanged pleasantries and I thought nothing more about it.

About two weeks later I received an email that went out to a large number of pediatric cardiologists worldwide, asking if there were any military pediatric cardiologists in Iraq. I responded to the email and said I was in Iraq and would be willing to help if I could. The person who had asked was the director of a non-governmental organization called www.shevet.org. It is a Christian organization that works to obtain care for Iraqi children who need heart surgery. They have already helped fifty Iraqi children to receive cardiac surgery in Jordan, Israel, Europe and the US. Imagine this: an Iraqi child is helped by a Christian organization to get life saving heart surgery in Israel. Only the hand of God can work those type of miracles. The director of the NGO contacted a physician at the Ministry of Health for Iraq. I contacted the doctor I did M-16 training with to see if evaluating Iraqi children would be something that the Iraqi Air Force Surgeon General would support.

After a about a hundred emails, the screening was approved. I went to Baghdad and set up a portable clinic in the National Iraqi Assistance Center. I was able to evaluate 57 Iraqi children with complex heart disease in two days. Most of the children were blue because of a lack of oxygen in their blood due to defects in their heart. Of the fifty-seven, forty-seven need surgery. Twenty-seven of the forty-seven do not need any more tests and can be sent for care as soon as arrangements are made. The remaining twenty need additional studies before they will be ready for surgery. For eight children they were not candidates for surgery due to the severity of their disease and delay in treatment. Two children were in good health and had only minor heart defects that did not need surgery.

Over and over again the Iraqis were very thankful for what was being done for them and they did not want the US to leave. They felt that we were the only ones helping them. They wanted to reassure me that there are only a minority of people who are violent and most want peace and democracy. There were two school age boys who unprompted said to us, “Bush” and gave the thumbs up sign.

It was an incredible opportunity for me to show these children and their families that the US cared for them and it was all brought about because of God answering the prayers of an eleven year old boy named Wesley.

Thank you Wesley “…The Prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” James 5 16b

Please join me in prayer for these children and their families.

Soli Deo Gloria