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MUMBAI:
Over two weeks, CNN PRESENTS: Combat hospital looks at the
life and death struggles that the medical team face every day in
the Iraqi capital’s military emergency rooms at the 10 Combat
Support hospital in Baghdad.
 With
exclusive and unprecedented access to the five doctors, 14 nurses
and 22 medics who treat casualties from U.S. and coalition forces,
the civilian population and even insurgents, in a building that
Saddam Hussein once used for his own personal medical care, CNN
PRESENTS: Combat hospital reveals the horror and humanity of
present day Iraq.
Presented
without narration, the programme is a compelling and gritty close-up
look at the American military’s frontline hospital starkly
depicted with the daily challenges that face the 10 Combat Support
hospital in Baghdad. Graphic video and natural sound reflect the
reality of the chaos and heroism in a wartime emergency room: gunshot
wounds, burns, amputations and other devastating damage caused by
improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Filmed
during 16 days of exclusive access to the Mountain Medic Combat
Support hospital by CNN Baghdad bureau chief Cal Perry, CNN senior
photojournalist Dominic Swann, and CNN's Ryan Chilcote, viewers
see why the maturity and professionalism required in a Combat emergency
setting are hard-earned.
A young
nurse, Lt. Riane Nelson, R.N., talks ruefully about how she was
“picked” to come to Iraq after being called to replace
another nurse who became pregnant shortly before her tour of duty.
Nelson’s
supervisor, head nurse Lt. Col. John Groves, describes the back
story of Nelson’s early inability to keep up with the requirements
of their busy unit. Then, Nelson worked with other personnel to
resuscitate a critical patient with CPR, saving her life. After
that, says Groves, “her confidence skyrocketed.” By the
time viewers meet Nelson, she is a self-assured and proficient team
member, saving more lives during the programme.
Outside
of the emergency room, the unit tries to maintain some normality
by playing football and baseball in the alley behind the hospital
and even celebrating a co-workers 21 birthday.
 In
one of the most compelling sequences in the documentary, the film
crew captures the arrival of 12 casualties during a few moments
of relative quiet for the medical team. Four are already dead. Seven
U.S. soldiers and CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier are critically
injured and fighting for their lives. The team goes back to work;
their trauma rooms are full again.
CNN
PRESENTS
is the most honoured documentary program in cable news. So far in
2006, CNN PRESENTS has been honoured by an Emmy, six New
York Festivals Awards, two National Headliner Awards and a National
Press Club Robert L. Kozik Award for environmental reporting.
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