IRAQ

Independent: Surgeons using headache pills instead of anaesthetic

At Al-Kindi hospital in Baghdad yesterday, stocks of painkillers had run so low that surgeons were operating on patients anaesthetised with headache pills.

At the Medical City hospital complex, which has 650 beds, overflowing wards were without electricity or water. Of the 27 operating theatres in the four hospitals in Medical City, just six were functioning, with the help of a back-up generator that has worked non-stop for 72 hours and could fail at any time.

Aid agencies said Baghdad's casualty units were being run by a skeleton staff of doctors and nurses who had struggled to work through the fighting. Most had worked solidly for three days, snatching a few minutes' rest between emergencies.

And all the while a steady stream of civilian casualties flowed into the city's 12 main hospitals in the back of pick-ups or carried by their families.