A Day in the Life Of a Baghdad ER

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By early afternoon, the ER doctors had released our colleagues. Now our options were either to admit them into the surgical ward of the main hospital, where it would be five days before a surgeon would get around to stitching their wounds, or to move them to a private hospital for immediate stitching. Most Iraqis can't afford private hospitals, even though the rooms cost only $10 a day and specialists charge just $200 for serious surgery.

Our choice was to move both men to Harthiya Hospital, a private clinic. The floors are cleaned more often than at Yarmouk, the air-conditioning works, and there are fewer flies. Harthiya also has more modern equipment. Working in more salubrious conditions, Dr. Raed Abbas, a private surgeon, was able to diagnose the full extent of the damage to Salah's arm. But the best he could do was repair one artery. It didn't look likely that the arm and hand would regain full function, he said, but it was all he could do. "Your friend," he said, "has already been luckier than anybody else in his position. At this point, all we can do is pray to God."

As it turned out, we had a few other options. With the help of a medical-evacuation agency, TIME airlifted Salah to Amman, Jordan, where he underwent extensive reconstructive hand surgery. Abu Karam was released from the hospital to convalesce at his home in Baghdad. Because of the lack of medicines and equipment at the ER, both men are still at risk for secondary infections. But they are in the care of their families and are expected to recover. They were the fortunate ones. Waleed, the university student, suffered brain trauma from the shrapnel to his head and remains at the Yarmouk Hospital, another victim whose only mistake was to be on the wrong side of the road in the morning.

Back in the ER, the staff members have all but forgotten the patients they saw only hours earlier. Though there will be no more bombings this day, a steady stream of patients keeps Emad busy. "Sometimes we forget that not everybody who comes here has a bullet wound or shrapnel from a bomb blast," he says. "There are many ways for people to get hurt." But it isn't long before another war wound appears in the ER: a young man shot in the hip. "Here we go," Emad whispers, almost to himself, as he gets back to work. --With reporting by Asaad Saeed/Baghdad