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KIRKUK, Iraq (March 30, 2008) - On his way home from working in
his family's field near this Iraqi city, Rahmey didn't see the
hidden improvised explosive device until it was too late.
Staggering for home after the blast, the 13-year-old Iraqi boy
had no way to know that his life would be saved by the quick,
selfless actions of U.S. Army soldiers and U.S. Air Force airmen
March 27.
"I heard and saw the explosion from my window," said Arif Muter
Jarew, Rahmey's father.
It wasn't long before his son stumbled in with shrapnel wounds
riddling his knee, leg and chest.
"I was panicked, there was blood coming from his mouth," Jarew
said. "My son was dying. He had blood everywhere."
The hospital was miles away and the desperate father didn't
think his vehicle would make it. With his son in his arms, he ran
out to the street to flag down passing motorists for help.
"Then I saw a convoy of American soldiers," he said. Jarew was a
little wary of asking for help from coalition forces. With his
dying son in his arms, he only hesitated a moment - his son's life
was at stake.
"We saw some Iraqis waving us to stop and one was cradling a
kid," said Pfc. Jeffrey Parson of the 10th Mountain Division's 1st
Brigade.
Parson and Pvt. Justin Avila, the patrol's medic, began treating
what they initially thought were gunshot wounds.
"There was blood coming from the kid's mouth and his wounds, so
we treated the bleeding first," Parson said.
The patrol radioed Forward Operating Base McHenry in the Hawijah
district of Tamim province. A medical evacuation helicopter arrived
a few precious minutes after receiving the call to transport Rahmey
and his father to the FOB. After medics stabilized Rahmey's
condition, he was transported along with his father to the medical
facility in Kirkuk, Iraq.
U.S. Army and Air Force medics treated Rahmey for shrapnel
wounds at the Freedom Hospital.
"He's a very lucky boy," said Air Force Capt. Gabriel Rulewicz,
a military surgeon. "He'll need some surgery to remove the
shrapnel, but we've stabilized him for transport to a hospital in
Kirkuk."
The Air Force surgeon credits Rahmey's survival to the quick
reaction by everyone involved. "It is a perfect ending to what
could have quickly resulted in the opposite," he said.
But to one Iraqi father, this ending was more than perfect.
"I did not know how caring U.S. soldiers are. I could not
believe how well they treated my son and me," Jarew said. "I am so
thankful to everyone who saved my son's life."
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