IRAQ: Children with serious illnesses abandoned

Would this be happening if the coalition forces weren't killing thousands of Iraqis? Not sure, but the situation might be better.

Lack of medical care certainly is a factor. And the assumption "we're all going to die" is also a factor.

Nine-year-old Faleh Muhammad was abandoned by his family in April 2006. He was left to fend for himself in the streets of Baghdad, and later he was diagnosed with leukaemia.

"I miss my mother… in the last days before they left me, she was very sad. One day I woke up in the morning to find my father and mother had disappeared," Faleh said.

"We were living in an abandoned building near Hay Jamia'a District with three other families. I asked them about my parents and they told me they had left. So I had to work to be able to eat because those families couldn't feed me," he said.

Faleh said he started begging in the streets of Baghdad and one day he had a serious headache and fainted. Helped by passers-by, he was taken to Yarmouk hospital and after two days diagnosed with leukaemia.

I'm constantly reminded how inhumanely people can treat each other. And it pisses me off.

Via Reuters.