Back to the Hospital: Re-engineered with More Iraqis, Prep for Advanced Warfare

Text Box:  BAGHDAD, June 30 — The first thing I notice is the smell. There’s only a trace of that rank, indefinable, unforgettable odor that seems to pervade all hospitals. When I visited here two years ago, the air was a lot thicker in Ibn Sina, the building Saddam Hussein built as a clinic to care for his friends, relatives and the Ba’athist elite. Now the U.S. military fully runs the joint, as the 28th Combat Support Hospital—and, boy, are they revamping the place. The second thing that strikes me is the mix of people: Along with the 28th Medical Company and 300 Americans here, about half are Iraqi—patients, workers, medical staff, interpreters. This is a huge change from 2005, when pretty much the only Iraqis you saw were a couple of patients here and there—innocent civilians or detainees. Now the facility treats anyone in danger of losing life, limbs or eyesight. All this is aligned with a major overhaul of CSH, the Green Zone’s only hospital. Each CSH facilities director specializes in an engineering field, and Chief Warrant Officer Vick’s is general construction. All that experience accounts for the vast improvements to this 45-year-old building’s construction, lighting and plumbing: new return-to-duty barracks, upgrades in electrical equipment, a vehicle washing system, and central air suction in the emergency rooms—installed for another frightening reality, this time the fumes of chemical warfare. —Leslie Sabbagh