Yuma doctor builds clinics in Iraq

For nearly a year, one of the Marine Corps Air Station's Navy doctors, worked to rebuild the medical community of one of Iraq's most war-ravaged cities.

  Cmdr. Dan Cornwell led a team of physicians from Iraq and coalition forces to build three medical clinics and work to restore the relationship between doctor and patient in Fallujah, Iraq, last year.

  The local health care system in Fallujah suffered from fighting over the past several years. The only facility available before the clinics were completed was Fallujah General Hospital, which had power for only three hours a day, said Cornwell, during a recent phone interview from Fallujah.

  The three, 45,000-square-foot clinics are designed to support a community of 50,000 people each and give Iraqi citizens the chance to have their own family physicians, said Cornwell, who served as the Yuma branch medical clinic commander from November 2003 to April 2007.

  Each clinic took about three months to build, with the first one completed in June 2007, the second in September 2007 and the final in January, said Cornwell, who has since returned to Yuma.

  Another goal was to turn control of the clinics from coalition forces to the Iraqis through a phasing process, said the Martinsville, Ill., native.

  The first clinic was run by an all-American team of doctors and the second was split in half between American and Iraqi doctors, said Cornwell. By the time the last clinic was operational, it was controlled by Iraqi physicians alone.

  "The focus is on Iraqi physicians taking care of Iraqi citizens to get these people on
their feet and trusting in their own systems," said Cornwell.

  "Personally, this has been very rewarding. It has been a life-changing event," said Cornwell.

  Even though the patients didn't speak English, seeing the looks on their faces and the faces of their parents made it worthwhile, he said.

  What Cornwell has done is amazing, said Teresa Contrabasso, assistant to the MCAS base medical clinic commander. It takes a lot of work to be able to stand up one clinic, let alone three. His heart for the patients and the experience he accumulated during his medical career made Cornwell the right guy for the job, she said. Cornwell was in Fallujah leading from the front, setting the example for all the sailors here, said Petty Officer 2nd Class Jake Poole, Yuma corpsman.

  "With this, we are establishing a life-long partnership with the Iraqis," said Poole, who returned from Iraq in November 2007.

  The medical community of Fallujah changed a lot since the team first arrived and is heading in a good direction, Cornwell said. They are taking the steps to becoming independent and well-established medical facilities.

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Lance Cpl. Daniel Sanchez writes for The Desert Warrior, the newspaper of the Marine Corps Air Station, from which this story is reprinted.