美国国家公共电台 NPR No One Was Prepared To Care For So Many Wounded In Mosul

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

The fight to force ISIS from the Iraqi city of Mosul has resulted in more casualties than expected, both for combatants and civilians¹. That has led the Iraqi government and international aid groups to step up emergency care. NPR's Alice Fordham went to a clinic where they are trying to get medics closer to the front lines.

ALICE FORDHAM, BYLINE²: In this field hospital a few miles from the Mosul front lines, there's no intensive care unit. They just wheel in casualties and start treating them right in the lobby.

(CROSSTALK)

FORDHAM: I get out of the way as two Iraqi troops arrive. They were hit by one of the suicide car bombs ISIS deploys³ every day on the battlefield.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken).

FORDHAM: One calls out the name of the other. Where is he, my brother? Both are conscious and expected to survive but confused and in pain, with hastily bandaged shrapnel wounds that need attention. Many such cases arrive during the day. In a tent next door, I speak with another man who took a bullet in his shoulder a few hours earlier.

ALI QASSEM: (Foreign language spoken).

FORDHAM: Ali Qassem says he was among the government forces that took the strategic airport back from ISIS and powered through into the next neighborhood. They thought they had cleared it.

QASSEM: (Foreign language spoken).

FORDHAM: But then, as a bunch of police gathered together, ISIS fighters shot them with rifles and mortars⁴.

QASSEM: (Foreign language spoken).

FORDHAM: "There were two, three, four, several people injured. It's still going on," he says. And this is happening a lot. ISIS is expected to lose Mosul, but its fighters are inflicting⁵ a terrible toll⁶ as they fight their losing battle. The numbers of civilians and combatants killed and injured far exceeded what was predicted, with land mines and booby traps adding to the danger.

Most medical facilities are far from the fighting. And when I meet with Dr. Altaf Musani, the representative for the World Health Organization in Iraq, he says many died for lack of urgent care.

ALTAF MUSANI: There is really a window within minutes that someone should be stabilized⁸

FORDHAM: That usually means stopping the heavy bleeding caused by bullet or shrapnel wounds and making sure the patient can breathe on their own while they await more treatment. Musani says typically in conflict situations, if they're stabilized, there's what's called a golden hour to get them more treatment.

In the first months of the battle for Mosul, that wasn't happening because the nearest functioning hospitals were hours away along bumpy⁹ roads. Musani says no one knew what would happen in the fighting, which made it hard to plan.

MUSANI: It wasn't anticipated that people would be stranded¹⁰, caught inside east Mosul.

FORDHAM: The impact on the Iraqi Armed Forces has been colossal¹¹. Iraqi officials won't give figures, but American military officials have told reporters some divisions had casualty rates of 30 percent, without specifying¹² whether the men were killed or injured. Now, Musani says the World Health Organization, charities and Iraq's health ministry¹³ have scrambled¹⁴ to move medics closer to the front lines to stabilize⁷ those first crucial cases.

MUSANI: And this is very difficult because you need a certain level of medical expertise¹⁵, equipment and mobility¹⁶ to be out in front lines in order to capture cases. The other big lift that we're working on, again in support of the government, is putting down three additional field hospitals.

FORDHAM: Their services are likely to be badly needed. The battle for the densely¹⁷ populated west of the city is only just getting underway. Alice Fordham, NPR News, northern Iraq.

1 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 deploys   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的第三人称单数 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• It then deploys "decoy" programs designed to attract the virus. 然后，它释放“诱饵”去吸引病毒。
• But when that doesn't work, he deploys his secret defense mechanism. 但没有效果，它要施展绝密自卫武器了。

4 mortars   

n.迫击炮( mortar的名词复数 )；砂浆；房产；研钵

参考例句：

• They could not move their heavy mortars over the swampy ground. 他们无法把重型迫击炮移过那片沼泽地。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Where the hell are his mortars? 他有迫击炮吗？ 来自教父部分

5 inflicting   

把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was charged with maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm. 他被控蓄意严重伤害他人身体。
• It's impossible to do research without inflicting some pain on animals. 搞研究不让动物遭点罪是不可能的。

6 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

7 stabilize   

vt.（使）稳定，使稳固，使稳定平衡；vi.稳定

参考例句：

• They are eager to stabilize currencies.他们急于稳定货币。
• His blood pressure tended to stabilize.他的血压趋向稳定。

8 stabilized   

v.（使）稳定， （使）稳固( stabilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The patient's condition stabilized. 患者的病情稳定下来。
• His blood pressure has stabilized. 他的血压已经稳定下来了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

9 bumpy   

adj.颠簸不平的，崎岖的

参考例句：

• I think we've a bumpy road ahead of us.我觉得我们将要面临一段困难时期。
• The wide paved road degenerated into a narrow bumpy track.铺好的宽阔道路渐渐变窄，成了一条崎岖不平的小径。

10 stranded   

a.搁浅的，进退两难的

参考例句：

• He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里， 身无分文，一筹莫展。
• I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市，既没有钱，又没有朋友。

11 colossal   

adj.异常的，庞大的

参考例句：

• There has been a colossal waste of public money.一直存在巨大的公款浪费。
• Some of the tall buildings in that city are colossal.那座城市里的一些高层建筑很庞大。

12 specifying   

v.指定( specify的现在分词 )；详述；提出…的条件；使具有特性

参考例句：

• When we describe what the action will affect, we are specifying the noun of the sentence. 当描述动作会影响到什么时，我们指定组成句子的名词。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Procurement section only lists opportunistic infection drugs without specifying which drugs. 采购部分只说明有治疗机会性感染的药物，但并没有说明是什么药物。 来自互联网

13 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

14 scrambled   

v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Each scrambled for the football at the football ground. 足球场上你争我夺。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. 他笨拙地爬起身来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

16 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

17 densely   

ad.密集地；浓厚地

参考例句：

• A grove of trees shadowed the house densely. 树丛把这幢房子遮蔽得很密实。
• We passed through miles of densely wooded country. 我们穿过好几英里茂密的林地。