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Dr. Robert Bailey carries haunting memories of the situations encountered in Iraq during two recent stints as an Army field surgeon, but none more poignant than the sight of a toddler with a charred face being loaded onto a helicopter.

It was the last time Bailey saw the tiny Iraqi girl he treated for second-and third-degree burns after a heater exploded inside her home, burning her and her two older sisters.

Their father, an Iraqi police officer, had taken the baby and her two older sisters to a local clinic where they were given basic care. Due to the severity of their burns, doctors there told him he would have to come up with $300 to pay before more extensive services could be rendered.

Unable to pay the fee, the police officer was forced to return home and tend to the girls on his own. However, the girls' conditions worsened during the next few days and he began searching for another option.

Eight days later, with three children in excruciating pain from untreated burns, his only option was the United States Army medical clinic where Bailey, a neurologist and physician for Boswell Regional Center in Magee, was on duty.

Despite months of treating thousands of badly wounded and dying soldiers, the sight of the three children being carried up the steps into the clinic by their desperate father was a sight that Bailey, a major with the 155th Brigade Combat Team based in Meridian, was not prepared to see.

"The baby's face was charred and covered with blisters; she had second- and third-degree burns all over her face, along with an infection," Bailey said. "Another child who was about seven years old had second- and third-degree burns to the right side of her face and her ear. The third child, about five years old, had first-degree burns to her legs."

After cleaning the baby's burns and applying ointment to prevent further infection, Bailey and other medics at first felt hopeful they could take care of her at the clinic.

"When she got here, I thought she was pretty stable, but with a possible infection," said Bailey. "We were optimistic that the burns themselves would heal, but we were concerned about the secondary infection."

Following treatment and the dressing of her wounds, the father took the baby home along with an invitation from Bailey to return the next day with all three of his daughters for a follow up exam.

When the father returned with the children, Bailey said the five-year-old girl seemed to be healing well, but his concerns about the other two, particularly the baby, became more founded.

The baby was not responding as well as she had when they treated her the night before, and the seven-year-old was burned so badly that the burn cream kept sliding off the wound, Bailey said.

"By the next day, I would say she was a little bit more worrisome," Bailey said of the youngest girl. "She was not quite as active and seemed to be regressing. The first night she was eating and drinking very well. The second night … she was pretty quiet and not drinking as well. The temperature was down a little bit, but her heart rate was up a little higher than the night before. We were concerned that she needed hospitalization."

The baby's condition continued to deteriorate as the night wore on. After observing the severity of the burns on her sister's face, he decided to call a medical evacuation team to take the two children to the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. The facility is equipped with pediatric equipment and was willing to admit the children.

Bailey followed the girls out to the helicopter and gave the father some much-needed cash to take with him. The sight of the helicopter disappearing over the desert horizon was the last he saw of his small patients.

While Bailey often thinks of the girls and wonders about their condition, he comforts himself with the belief that all three will have a full recovery. They will inevitably have some scarring from the burns, but he hopes they will not need plastic surgery, which might not be possible in their present situation.

"I'll never forget the sight of that worried daddy getting into the helicopter with those little girls," Bailey recalled. "At that moment, he was just like any other daddy, anywhere in the world."

After stopping for a few minutes to mull over details from the two nights he cared for the girls, Bailey continued, "I believe they'll recover nicely, or at least that is what I have to believe. I heard the baby had almost died once or twice in the hospital, but I have not been able to get further word."

While this case was unusual for Bailey's clinic, he believes that supporting the local Iraqi population with medical treatment and in other ways is helping the United States bring stability to the country.

"The Iraqi people are really in a crunch getting back up on their feet," Bailey said. "They just started laying the foundation for the new medical training center in Baghdad, where they will be training doctors, and we're going to be working in the field trying to get their healthcare system up. So it's not really us taking care of them. It's helping them get back in the mode of taking care of themselves."

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