A Warm Story for a Friday

The lives of two young Afghan girls from Helmand province have been saved by military medics, after they fell victim to a Taliban improvised explosive device while out playing.

While playing near their home in Musa Qala, a district in the north of Helmand Province, Kamila, 3, and Wasila, 6, were seriously injured by an IED which had earlier been laid by insurgents. Kamila took the brunt of the explosion and suffered severe head injuries; while Wasila endured shrapnel wounds to her stomach, causing liver damage.

Kamila's father took the children to Musa Qala District Centre, knowing that coalition troops based there would help. Their injuries were so severe that a British Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) was mobilised, and the girls were flown via a British Chinook helicopter to the military multinational hospital, at Kandahar Airfield.

MERTs are launched for coalition, local national and suspected insurgent casualties with the requests being prioritized according to medical urgency.

Lieutenant Andrew Jelinek, from the Household Cavalry Battle Group, operates in Musa Qala, the area where girls were injured. He said:

"IEDs laid by insurgents take a terrible toll on innocent civilians. They have had a deadly effect on British and coalition forces but it is the ordinary Afghan people that are hit the hardest. Unfortunately, children are the frequent victims of Taleban IEDs and, sadly, the story of Kamila and Wasila is far from unique.

"It is only thanks to the work of British soldiers that there are not more incidents of this kind.

"Back home we think we worry about our kids' safety when they go out to play but here it's on a different scale. The dangers the local kids face here when they are out playing are life and death. The Taliban just don't give a stuff about them. They plant these bombs knowing kids might set them off but they just don't care. If they did they wouldn't do it."

Doctor Kao, their Canadian attending physician, who has seen several tours in Afghanistan, added:

"Before Kamila arrived, we had a young boy with similar injuries who died, so we were all very nervous about her chances of recovery. After initial treatment, the signs were not good, as she could not move her left side and was unable to express emotion.

"Although there were to be further complications, Kamila is now interacting with the people around her and even smiling. We consider Kamila our miracle child. She was such a morale booster, because we see so many kids that do not make it."

During their recovery, the girls loved to go out to the flight line and wave at the helicopters taxiing past and got very excited when the crew waved back. With the onset of winter, the girls were presented with new coats and shoes and, for a while, they refused to take them off, wearing them everywhere.

Kamila's father stayed close throughout the girls' treatment. Through an interpreter he reported that he was very happy with the care that they had received. However, he did have some concerns of what might happen upon their return. He said it would be dangerous, as the Taliban may ask him where they have been.
Now that is an obvious worry.

Kamila and her family will continue to receive medical support from the Forward Operating Base closest to their home.

The girls enjoyed a flight back to Musa Qala District Centre on board a British Chinook that was returning on routine tasking. As the helicopter flew away from the hospital, the medical staff were clearly moved by the loss of their young charges, but grateful that the girls' recovery allowed them to go home.


Source

We Remember the Fallen.............We Must Remember The Rest

As the bodies of eight soldiers, including three teenagers, killed in a bloody 24 hours in Helmand were repatriated, mental health experts joined warned that not enough was being done to care for returning members of the armed forces.

Britain faces a "ticking timebomb" of mental illness and suicide among young Army veterans who return from Afghanistan.

A lack of mental health care for veterans, combined with the stress of fighting the Taliban, will mean many survivors of the conflict pay a heavy price in psychological problems and self harm.

Research suggests that veterans aged 18 to 23 are up to three times more likely to commit suicide than their civilian counterparts. Setting out plans today to boost mental health care for returning troops. Appaerntly more veterans of the Falklands campaign and the first Gulf War killed themselves after quitting the forces than died in action.

An estimated 264 Falklands veterans have committed suicide since the conflict ended, compared with 255 soldiers killed in action, according to an ex-servicemen's organisation.

Twenty-four British soldiers died during the 1991 Gulf War, but the Ministry of Defence disclosed last year that 169 veterans of the conflict had died from "intentional self-harm" or in circumstances that led to open verdicts at inquests.

David Hill, director of operations for the charity Combat Stress, said it took an average of 14 years for veterans to ask for help with post-traumatic stress disorder. Many suffered in silence – often harbouring suicidal thoughts – because they were reluctant to admit to their vulnerability.

Mr Hill said: "Servicemen and women are exposed to stresses that most people won't be exposed to in their lives. In Afghanistan, they are exposed to them quite early in their careers. There is a general lack of understanding about how intense these stresses can be."

A study by Manchester University this year found that ex-servicemen under 24 were between two and three times more likely to kill themselves than men of the same age from outside the forces.


Greater help and emphasis needs to be put on returning service men and wowen. We can not just allow them to experience what they have been then just let them go with no support. Yes I realise wars throughout time will have effected service folks. The Flanders field of WW1 will also have had the same effect, but we now have the medical skills to recognise, to support, to help. And we must.

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