Americans Donate Medical Books to Iraq

[leftchick]

Good News From Iraq!!....

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050103/ap_on_re_us/iraq_medical_books&cid=519&ncid=1480

Dr. Alex Garza, an Army Reserve captain and emergency room doctor from Missouri, saw firsthand how hopelessly outdated Iraq (news - web sites)'s medical libraries were.

Back in the United States, Dr. David Gifford, a retired Army colonel, learned of the problem from a physician friend stationed in Iraq.

Unbeknownst to each other, the two men thought of a plan: to modernize Iraq's health care system by getting up-to-date medical textbooks and journals into the hands of Iraqi professors and students.

Garza and Gifford eventually joined forces, and soon medical schools, publishing houses and people around the globe donated boxloads of medical literature to the war-scarred country. More than 100,000 items have been collected so far.

"This is really a big change," said Dr. Thamer Al Hilfi, a tuberculosis specialist and professor at the University of Tikrit College of Medicine. "Everyone here — doctors and students — feel like they are born again."