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    Reaching Past the Wire: A Nurse at Abu Ghraib
    Reaching Past the Wire: A Nurse at Abu Ghraib
    Reaching Past the Wire: A Nurse at Abu Ghraib
    Ebook211 pages2 hours

    Reaching Past the Wire: A Nurse at Abu Ghraib

    By Deanna Germain and Connie Lounsbury

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    On a frigid afternoon in February 2003, Deanna Germain, a nurse practitioner and new grandmother living in Blaine, Minnesota, received the registered letter she had hoped would never arrive. In six days she was to report for active duty as war loomed in Iraq. The purpose of mobilization: "For Enduring Freedom."

    With startling detail, Lt. Col. Germain offers a clear-eyed account of life as a nursing supervisor behind the fortified gates of Abu Ghraib. Her duty: To treat Iraqi prisoners, U.S. soldiers, and Marines in need of medical attention. Shortly after she arrived, the notorious prison made headlines around the world for abuses that had stopped months before. Despite unbearable heat, frequent mortar attacks, medical supply shortages, substandard facilities, the relentless stench of war, and sleepless nights quartered in a tiny prison cell, Germain served the medical needs of each of her patients with remarkable humanity.

    In this crucible of wartime stress, workplace turmoil, and cultural uncertainty, Germain found herself forging powerful connections with colleagues and translators. She learned from translators about normal Iraqi families struggling to survive impossible conditions. And after vowing to avoid personal relationships with prisoners, she became a comfort to many. Duty and compassion, camaraderie and hope all helped to pull her through.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBorealis Books
    Release dateAug 1, 2009
    ISBN9780873516921
    Reaching Past the Wire: A Nurse at Abu Ghraib
    Author

    Deanna Germain

    Lt. Col. Deanna Germain, USAR (Ret.), is a nurse practitioner at a pain clinic near Minneapolis.

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    • 4/5
      Germain was 53 years old and an army reservist when she was deployed to Iraq for what she thought would be a 6 month stay that turned into 18 months. She shows daily life at the prison (this was after the breaking of the story about torture, so none of that was going on any more, that she knew). Life was dirty, dusty, hot, demanding and dangerous. She grew very close to the translators who were making more money at these new jobs than at their old ones of teaching, engineering or farming, but who faced serious reprisals if people outside the prison knew of their jobs. She was very unsure of whether or not she'd be able to treat detainees who might be innocent or might also be killers of her comrades, but as a health professional, of course she could. After her months of being there a new arrival said to her, "How can you do this? You live like dogs." And she had become so inured to her surroundings she said, "But, we even have mats on the floor." It's a good view of the daily life of the soldier and of the difficult adjustment to civilian life when she got back.

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    Reaching Past the Wire - Deanna Germain

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