Date:08/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/08/stories/2006120803180400.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

An invaluable exposure

Priscilla Jebaraj

GREETING THE VISITORS: Governor Surjit Singh Barnala with Iraqi doctors at Raj Bhavan in Chennai on Thursday. — Photo: M. Vedhan

CHENNAI: Iraqi cardiac surgeon Laith S. Abood is here to learn cutting-edge techniques from the city specialists. But he can teach them all there is to know about penetrating cardiac surgery. In layman's terms, that is surgery dealing with gunshot wounds to the heart.

"[With] all the bullets and shells due to the military action... this is the most common type of heart surgery performed in Iraq today," says Dr. Abood, medical director of the government-run Iraqi Centre for Heart Diseases. Along with 12 Iraqi colleagues, including cardiologists, anaesthesiologists, paramedics and surgeons, Dr. Aboud is undergoing a three-month training in cardiac diseases at the Frontier Lifeline Hospital.

Especially for the surgeons, the exposure is invaluable. In Baghdad, they perform about five surgeries a week; at the Frontier, they see double that number everyday. "In Iraq, we only do simple surgeries. More complicated cases, we have to send abroad," says another surgeon. They hope this trip will "open a window of exchange" between the Indian and Iraqi medical teams.

The only woman on the team, paediatric cardiologist Khlud G. Albdula, is bemused by the attention she gets. "It's all media hype. We are an open community... There is nothing unusual," she says about being an Iraqi woman doctor.

She prefers to focus on the plight of her young patients. There is an increase in the number of children with congenital heart disease and she believes the weapons being used in Iraq are responsible. She also sees a large number of children with cardiac trauma caused by the violence they witness every day. "One 11-year-old actually came to us with five bullets in his heart," says Dr. Albdula.