Troops provide dental, medical assistance to the residents of Janeen

Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20070730-08
July 30, 2007


Troops provide dental, medical assistance to the residents of Janeen
Multi-National Division – Baghdad PAO


BAGHDAD — While in many countries basic dental and medical care may
sometimes be taken for granted, for most Iraqis, services such as these are
luxuries that are often times unavailable or unaffordable.


To help mitigate this issue, Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field
Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, conducted a
dental and medical assistance mission in a small village near the neighborhood
of Janeen July 27.


More than 100 people received treatment during the humanitarian aid
mission, which was conducted in conjunction with dentists from the Iraqi Army.


Today we came to provide medical care for the local citizens and our goal
was to restore families and help them with the care that they don’t get on an
every day basis, explained Capt. Leon Richardson, the physician’s assistant with
3-82 FA.


The San Antonio native said that the battalion tries to conduct missions
like this at least once every two months, but if time allowed, they would like to be
able to do them more often.


“We want to try to pick it up and get out here a little bit more because
there’s a lot more that needs to be done,” he said.


One of the residents, who the Soldiers had worked with before,
volunteered the use of his property for the set up of their make-shift clinic.
Richardson set up in a small shaded corner outside the house, while the
brigade’s dentist, Capt. Christine Ford and her assistant, Spc. Lisa Beasley, used
the living room to see their patients.


Along with Ford, two dentists from the Iraqi Army, 2nd Lts. Omar Khan
and Saleh Faris, were also on hand to provide assistance.


“We were taking care of immediate problems, particularly pain issues,
which were mostly extractions,” Ford, a native of Seattle, explained. “Most of the
patients we saw were mostly tooth pain or gum pain, all coming from poor oral
hygiene.”


Ford explained to each of her patients how to properly care for their teeth
and handed out toothbrushes after treating them.


She said that while it was good that they were able to offer some help,
there were several limitations to the type of services she could provide.


“Since we can’t bring all our equipment we couldn’t do regular fillings or
anything like that,” Ford said. “It was basically extractions, maybe a quick
cleaning or nothing. So our realm was very limited.”


Richardson agreed with Ford about the limitations of the types of care he
could provide, saying that the best he could do for most people was give them
something to try to alleviate whatever pain they were dealing with.


“We’re just here to treat symptoms,” he explained. “Because we can’t do a
whole lot, we just give them something to help them with the pain. If there’s some
emergency, we may do some small procedure, but other than that it’s just pain
control – relieve the symptoms and make them feel better.”


He said the most common problems he saw were joint and abdominal
pain and allergies, and although he can’t cure everybody, just being able to
provide a little assistance is a good feeling.


Whenever you can relieve pain from any patient, it doesn’t matter,
Americans or lIraqis , it’s a great feeling, Richardson said. “We touch lives and
people leave feeling better.”


While Ford and Richardson attended to the patients, Soldiers from Battery
A, 3-82 FA maintained order and security outside.


Sgt. Frank Kautz, a native of Pittsburgh, said that he enjoys taking part in
these humanitarian missions, particularly his interaction with the children.
While their parents were waiting to be seen, Kautz and other Soldiers
organized games for the children and handed out small prizes to the winners.


“Any humanitarian mission that I’m a part of I feel good about myself
because I know we made a difference,” Kautz said. “It gives the people a good
impression that Americans are not here to be harmful, they’re here to help, and
that’s why I always feel good every time I’m a part of something like this. I know
I’m here helping people and the people know we’re here to help.”


-30-


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