Hospital hopes Iraq wounded will be home for holidays
LANDSTUHL, Germany (AP) -- The commander of a U.S. military hospital said Thursday she hopes many of those wounded and sent here for treatment after a suicide bombing on an American base in northern Iraq will be able to return to the United States for Christmas.
Doctors at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center have treated some 35 soldiers and civilians wounded in an insurgent attack Tuesday at a dining facility in the northern city of Mosul.
Many have suffered serious injuries but all are expected to survive, said hospital commander Col. Rhonda Cornum.
"We don't have anybody we don't expect to recover," she said.
The blast killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. service members, four American civilians, three Iraqi National Guard members, and one "unidentified non-U.S. person." Military officials have said it's not yet known whether that final death was the suicide bomber.
The attack was particularly deadly because many of the soldiers and civilians were caught off guard, without their protective body armor on, Cornum said.
"One young man I spoke to said he was sitting eating lunch, and then found that he was somewhere else," Cornum said.
They were suffering from a range of wounds including shrapnel injuries, broken bones and burns, and 17 were in intensive care. Two patients have had amputations, including one who was given a double amputation, Cornum said.
Still, the hospital was working hard to get as many patients as possible stable enough to return to the United States for the holidays, Cornum said.
"I can't get seriously injured people home in time for Christmas, but I'd like to get them to a U.S. facility where their families can meet them for Christmas," she said.
The Defense Department has said it believes the attack was a suicide bombing, partly because the shrapnel included small ball bearings, which are often used in such attacks. But Cornum said that by the time the patients arrived at Landstuhl, it was not possible to determine what had caused their injuries.
"By the time they get here, most of the shrapnel has been removed," she said. "Whatever caused the injury isn't there anymore."
In the past two days, the hospital has received 93 patients, including the 35 from the Mosul attack, Cornum said.
"We've been working around the clock," said hospital spokeswoman Marie Shaw.
The hospital has already sent two patients to the United States and was sending five more Thursday for further treatment at Brooks Army Medical Center in Texas, and Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, Shaw said.
