I wanted to mention this because this woman devoted her life to caring for the very hard to care for....we all risk our lives a little bit when caring for the sick or injured but she went well above the usual. I would just like to take a moment to remember a fellow nurse, a role model.

The Army has buried the first nurse killed in combat since the Vietnam War.

Capt. Maria I. Ortiz was buried yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery, nearly a month after she was killed in the Green Zone in Baghdad, the first Army nurse to die in combat since the Vietnam War. Ortiz, 40, of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, was killed July 10 by enemy fire, the Defense Department reported. She was caught in a mortar attack while returning from physical training.

Ortiz volunteered to go to Iraq, leaving in September after 18 months as the chief nurse at the Kirk U.S. Army Health Clinic at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. “She really felt that while what she was doing here was important, she felt as though she needed to go over there, because she wanted to take care of our soldiers and the people of Iraq and the coalition soldiers,” said Wanda Schuler, who worked with Ortiz at the Kirk clinic.

A sad milestone. Maj. Gen. Gale S. Pollock, the Army’s acting surgeon general, attended the funeral and New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine issued an executive order to fly the state’s flags at half staff.

As an awkward aside under the circumstances, MG Pollock is a nurse. How can a nurse be the surgeon general, giving orders to doctors? (Indeed, it’s always struck me as odd that nurses can rise above the rank of captain and thus be paid more and senior to board certified MDs.)

Hat tip: Phil Carter

from The Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: A Puerto Rican soldier killed in a mortar attack in Baghdad's Green Zone was the first Army nurse to die from combat-related injuries in the Iraq war, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Friday.

Army Capt. Maria Ines Ortiz, 40, who had been serving in Iraq since September, was caring for wounded Iraqis at a hospital inside the fortified district that also hosts the U.S. Embassy and Iraq's parliament, her family said.

"She touched everyone's lives and everything about her was positive," her fiance, Juan Casiano, said from her mother's home in Pennsauken, New Jersey. "She always carried a smile."

Born in Camden, New Jersey, Ortiz grew up in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. She had been assigned to Kirk U.S. Army Health Clinic at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where she was chief nurse of general medicine.

She was the only U.S. citizen among three people killed in the barrage Tuesday, one in a series of recent attacks that have added to safety concerns for key Iraqi and international officials who live and work in the Green Zone.

Her father, Jorge Ortiz, said she was not wearing body armor because she felt safe inside the walls of the central Baghdad district. It is common for people not to wear protective gear in the area, especially during warm summer months.

Ortiz, who died from her wounds Tuesday, was the first Army nurse killed in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith.

Through January of this year, 90 Army medical personnel had been killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, said Margaret Tippy, a spokeswoman for the Army Medical Command.

"It was her calling," said Casiano, an Army veteran. "I saw in her what everyone else sees, a beautiful person who brings joy to everyone she touches."

Ortiz is survived by her parents, and four sisters in New Jersey and Florida.

____

Associated Press writer Yaisha Vargas contributed to this report.

I know I am a couple of weeks late with this next blog but I needed to wait until I calmed down a bit to talk about it.

Maybe I should hold the name calling, but then again, what the heck, it's my blog! Concerning that big baboon Michael Moore and his new documentary movie SICKO.... I thought to not even give him the time of day but I need to say what I need to say.

The United States of American does not, I agree, have the most ideal health care system in the world.(NO one does). It has it's draw backs. I beg to differ with the thought process that it does not serve the poor or disadvantaged. I do not agree it is THAT hard to access, either. Yes, I agree there is lots of waiting and lots of phone calls. Some of our physicians do not explain things thoroughly, some are nasty and some never smile. I do not agree there is any other better QUALITY health care system in the world.

He says, the baboon, that no Canadian or resident of the United Kingdom would give up there health care access card for an American HMO card. NO ONE????? How many of those other residents know the truth about comparing the two systems? Their system is not for free as he mentions, not by a long shot. It is not always easy to access and it does not always provide quality care. Ask anyone, anywhere, with a major health problem, a debilitating disease, or a fast acting cancer where would they want to be treated? It makes me nuts that this big slob of a guy is making millions on that crap he is selling.

Here is a copy of a letter from a nurse from Canada, printed in THE Nursing Spectrum Magazine...just to prove my point a bit.
(And for all those who are complaining and whining about the system here..either help change it or move to Canada or elsewhere/take your pick).

"Canada no Healthcare Shangri-La"

I have always found the fascination with the Canadian health care system to be a bit curious...and a bit misunderstood. I grew up in Canada and did my RN training in Canada. I also worked in Canada for a couple of years before moving to the U.S. Out of my class of 52 RN graduates, only three were able to get full time jobs out of school. The rest of the class was relegated to working per diem without benefits. Very few were able to find positions with hospitals, and most of us landed in positions in home health---which is very different animal than the system we have in the U.S. It's much more like a private-duty system than the system of nurse visits that we have down here.

As an example, my first peritoneal taps for a liver cancer patient were done on the patient's couch in her living room---no monitor available--just me, a manual BP cuff, and a stethoscope. This was 45 minutes away from the closest hospital. Welcome to a glimpse of the less-than-stellar aspects of the Canadian health care system.

The icing on the Canadian health care cake is the cost. One of the primary means of paying for the health care system is through sales tax. Every province except Alberta has a provincial tax that is tacked on in addition to the federal "goods and services tax" or "GST" as it is known. When you also factor in that the income tax is also HIGHER, while wages tend to be lower, the system is a lot more expensive than some realize. As an example, I would have to take about a 50% pay cut to do the same job in Nova Scotia as I do in California.

I wholeheartedly agree that something needs to be done to improve the American health care system.

Samantha Farrell, RN
Oxnard, Calif.



Let me add that while I worked in several hospitals, insurance companies and outpatient facilities (dialysis) I have to say with 100% surity that I never saw a patient be denied care because of his inability to pay, I never saw someone not cared for properly and to the highest degree of integrity of the nurses and doctors except for two instances (one I cannot remember the exact details) when I saw a well known Orthopedic surgeon examine a patient's spinal wound without gloves and instead of changing the dressing he just put the old one back on/repacked the wound...that is the only time I EVER seen a doctor not act in the most professional manner or use his or her expertise with care.

I would also like to warn that everyone be an advocate for yourself when it comes to health care. Pay attention to your medications, dressings, surgeries. Ask questions, make demands (in a nice way at first) and if someone you love cannot speak or act on their own behalf please act for them. Doctors and nurses are only human and they make lots of mistakes. Here, Canada and EvERYWHERE else.

He's Home!!!!!! and he is more beautiful than I remembered.

"I love little children and it is not a slight thing when they, who are fresh from God,love us."
Charles Dickens

"There are times when to be reasonable is to be cowardly."

indeed

When someone refers to another woman as strong, my back goes up a bit. Strong, I am not. I am short and thin, and small boned. I am too sensitive and overdo everything until I am exhausted enough to cry. I am not strong enough to keep my mouth shut or keep the gossip to a whisper. I can cook for an army and do laundry 5 hours a day. I can clean and work. But I get tired and need lots of food and sleep and coffee. I need time to myself and time to read and listen to beautiful music. I need to anaylze everything until it is reduced to dust. I need to say what I feel and feel what I say. I need quiet HOURS on the porch to listen to the birds and the rustling of the trees. I need to find the bees in the flowers and tend to my crafts and plants. Feeling needy in many ways decreases my tendency to feel strong and mighty and in control.

And then there is menopause that without hormones I'd probably be a basket case.

When I met my husband I was 16 years old. There was another very special woman in his life, seemingly strong and stoic, and I was moving in on her. He wasn't the type to stray from home. He wasn't the type to go away, study abroad or island hop with friends. He was a home body. Suddenly here I was, either there or on the phone all the time. I really didn't understand it then, how his mother felt. I didn't know that her insides were in knots and her head ached knowing he was on his way out. 6 years later he went two states away to law school, 2 years after that he was hitched. Were these painstaking years for her?

I think of her often now because I remember the look in her eyes. I remember her recognition of loss. Was it her secret spell that I'd have to endure what she did four times over? I am reliving those headaches and separation anxiety. My little one started all the trouble. He dared go off on an excursion to the mountains with his friends for a three day weekend. He called thrilled with news of seeing beautiful water falls, swims in the lake, frog catching and deer and vulture sightings. Bonfires and hot dog roasts rushed him off the phone. "I love you too mom" turned on my tears. "Are you eating?", I asked. "Oh yeah, we had pizza and spaghetti and tonight we had ribs". I can't even lure them with my cooking anymore.

I know I am ridiculous. I remember Marie, long ago, seemingly ridiculous. Today I saw my hand shake when lifting my water glass and in a flash I saw her hands, red and thin and shaky raising her cola glass to her rosebud lips.

My other kids are here and there but are mostly wrapped up in their own lives. Each son held it together for me a little while longer. They seem to appreciate their home but are ready to go and live and call me on the phone.

I wish I could tell my mother in law how lucky she was to have her son's attention for 22 full years.

Now I understand.

I wish I had 5 more children. I am certainly not as strong as she.