Inshala

It was my first day in the Iraqi pediatric burn clinic, and the experience had been exhausting. The medics called me over to the newly burned 12-year-old girl who was in respiratory distress. She was burned from head to toe, and the smell was overpowering. While I repositioned her head, she stopped breathing. I didn't have a crash cart, suction, or even a bag valve mask. Her carotid pulse was gone when I checked it. Her fixed and dilated pupils regarded me in glassy peace. I reassured myself that a person with a burn over 40% of the body surface area is likely to die.

I am an internal medicine physician in the U.S. Army completing a 15-month rotation in Iraq. I have no training in burn treatment, and I have never treated a child. Along with the health of my soldiers, I am the officer in charge of the …