I recently became aware of the existence of the US Army's Smith Gate Clinic, located outside Camp Scania in Baghdad. The purpose of Smith Gate is to treat Iraqi children who have suffered burn injuries, many as a result of deliberate or accidental explosions.
As might be expected, Smith Gate is pretty busy. As would also -- sadly -- be expected, it is underfunded. Medcenter One Health Systems in Bismarck, North Dakota, has set up a foundation to accept donations. I urge anyone who is able to do so to contribute.
But my main purpose in writing this diary is to educate people about the existence of Shriners Hospitals for Children. Shriners is a network of 22 hospitals that provide state-of-the-art, free medical care to children from around the world. 4 of our hospitals are pediatric burn centers. I am an RN at the Boston hospital, which (at the risk of tooting our own horn) is generally considered to be the world's premier pediatric burn care center.
I am always surprised at how many people don't know we exist. Or, if they do, they just have a vague recollection of TV ads from the 1970's about caring for "crippled children." Even the medical officers at Smith Gate don't seem to know about us, as evidenced by the fact that we have not received one telephone call or referral from them. (To be fair, nobody at Shriners seemed to know that Smith Gate existed, either.) My hope is that by publicizing who we are and what we do, we can help more burned kids to survive and recover.
To that end, I have contacted the public relations officer of the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery Regiment of the Minnesota National Guard, whose medics run the Smith Gate Clinic, to inform them of our existence and urge them to avail themselves of our services. I would like to ask any Kossacks who are willing to do so to contact them as well, by e-mail at public.affairs@mn.ngb.army.mil or by phone at 651-268-8919. And, if anyone knows members of the 1-125th personally, I'd like you to ask you to please pass this information along.
Early and effective intervention is the best way to ensure a positive outcome in burn care. The sooner we can get these critically injured kids into appropriate facilities, the better. Thank you.
(The good-looking fellow on the right is Vasilios. I'm the other guy.)