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| Iraq |
| Soldier bridges cultural gap during search |
| 2003-11-22 |
| Link requires registration... Staff Sgt. Gina Gray, a broadcast journalist assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, found herself in the unusual position of playing doctor, nurse and midwife to an Iraqi mother too poor to afford a trip to the hospital to give birth. "Thank god I've watched 'E.R.,'" was about all she could mutter as she emerged, from the building holding a baby boy. The newborn, Zuher Ahmed Mohowed, was not even an hour old. While searching a house in Kirkuk Nov. 17, the paratroopers of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry (Airborne) were asked by the house owner not to disturb one of the rooms. Further investigation with an interpreter only revealed that there was a 'sick woman' inside. The commander in the area, trying to be sensitive to the owner's wishes while still wanting to conduct a thorough search, sent for the only female soldier in the area, Gray. Putting her video camera aside, she approached the house and was told to see if everything was ok in there and "oh, by the way, see if there are any weapons in the room while you're at it." "I really had no idea what to expect," Gray said. "When I went in there, the baby had just finished coming out. She, the mother, was just laying there in pain and the other women were wiping the baby down." It is often said that "timing is everything," and if that's true, then Gray's timing is surely something. She entered the room as the umbilical cord was about to be cut and the women were attempting to extract the placenta. Within moments, she stuck her head out the door, asked that no one come in and that someone get her a combat lifesaver's bag. "She was pretty surprised to see me I think," Gray said. "She saw me walk through the door. I mean think about it, here I am with a weapon and body armor, and she's just had a baby.â Gray took off her body armor and helmet to let everyone in the room know she was there to help. âThey were more impressed when I took off my Kevlar and they saw the hair," Gray said. The baby had just been born and a few moments old at the most. "They cut the cord and got the placenta out and that's when I called for the combat lifesaver's bag and the medic," she said. "She was trying to push out the placenta and they wanted me to help by putting my hands up there. That finally got out and I noticed she was torn pretty badly." Spc. Anthony Durate, the medic at the scene, helped Gray. Duarte had helped deliver a baby as a civilian, but this was his first in Iraq and his first under such austere conditions. "I walked in there about the time the placenta was out," Duarte said. "I gave her some pain medication, some morphine, and checked her vitals. I just did what I could do. I talked through the interpreter and was able to give her some medication and then get an IV into her." The baby boy, Zuher, is doing fine. "I just didn't want all of you coming in there," she said with a grin to the male soldiers. "I didn't want any of the tough infantry guys fainting." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |