Angel of mercy returns to Iraq to aid the sick

ONCE bitten, twice as eager, an Irish doctor is heading for Iraq to prepare for the inevitable humanitarian crisis that will follow war.

But what makes Dr Mary McLoughlin’s expedition all the more remarkable is that she is returning despite narrowly escaping the bombardment that devastated the country and its people during the last Gulf War.

Dr McLoughlin was working in a Baghdad hospital at the time of the last threat of war on Iraq and was initially held hostage along with other Western workers as the deadline for military action approached.

When finally given the chance to leave, she refused to join the Westerners fleeing the city, choosing instead to stay to care for her patients until the first bombs were hours away.

This time the Cobh, Co Cork native is returning to head up relief operations for aid agency GOAL, and although she expects to be held up on the Kuwaiti border, she hopes be in Iraq assessing the needs of the people within days.

Tens of thousands of refugees are thought likely to attempt to escape the turmoil through the borders with Kuwait and Jordan but the worst humanitarian crisis is expected within Iraq among communities fleeing aerial bombardment “Already people in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk are fleeing but they only have the villages of the Kurdish region to go to,” she said.

“For people who flee in southern Iraq, there’s only desert where the oncoming summer heat will be absolutely devastating to people without shelter and water.

“There will be nothing but inhospitable terrain wherever they go so people may dig in and try to stay in the cities,” she said.

Dr McLoughlin’s concern is after two wars and 12 years of sanctions, malnourishment and sparse medical care, the Iraqis and particularly the sick, the elderly and children, will not survive further deprivation.

She also fears she will be hampered reaching communities in need after the US bombardment because of the possibility of civil war and the likelihood that parts of the country will be contaminated by chemical or biological weapons.

“Anybody’s guess is as good as mine what we’re going to face and what the people are going to go through. All we can do is try to be there and act as fast as we can,” she said.

Dr McLoughlin is no stranger to risk. Since joining GOAL, she has served in Bosnia where she stayed behind to tend the sick and wounded during months of Serb shelling of so-called safe-haven, Gorazde.

She has also worked in crisis-torn Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Mozambique, Albania, Kosovo and Afghanistan.