Follow up

The 12 year old I flew last week returned to us from Balad, he is doing much better. He and his father are very grateful for the care he recieved. He is paralyzed from the waist down from the bullet, but his one kidney he has left is working well. He went home yesterday afternoon. We hear from our Iraqi translators that they are seeing a shift in the attitudes of many of the local population. The translators have been here for a while, and have said that they now see that the local population wants to be seen at our facility if the are sick/injured, whereas before they did not trust us when we first arrived. Some have said that they now see that the bad guys are not doing what they promised to do for the local population.
This is all anecdotal, I have not yet had any personal conversations with the Iraqis about this, but I do see how grateful they are to recieve the care we give them, like the father (who is a teacher) of this 12 year old.