Today is the official release of Coppola: A Pediatric Surgeon in Iraq . We would like to share with you some interview questions Dr. Coppola answered for us.
A.E.: Did you ever think you would be called up to war? Do you remember where you were when you found out you would be called up to war? Describe your initial reaction.
Dr. Coppola: I first became interested in the military to pay for medical school, but in the end I signed up out of a desire to give something back to my country. I actually expected that I would be called up for duty during wartime at some point in my life and I hoped that I would be useful to the troops if the call came. But what I failed to anticipate was being deployed in a war that seemed so completely senseless and unnecessary. As soon as the war started, all of the surgeons in my flight knew we would be deploying sooner or later. It was our duty to keep the combat support hospital in Iraq up and running for the troops at all times. So by the time my deployment orders actually came, they had been long expected. My reaction was relief that I had a defined date so my family and I could plan for deployment, even though it meant we were facing a temporary separation.
A.E.: You treated a number of children in Iraq. What types of injuries were you seeing? Were these all from bombs and gunfire or were there other sorts of treatments you performed?
Dr. Coppola: In Coppola: A Pediatric Surgeon in Iraq (www.coppolathebook.com), I describe how our combat support hospital in Balad treated troops, enemy combatants, and civilians, including children. For the most part, children were receiving the same injuries that adults were. The most common were blast injuries, with accompanying shrapnel and burns. Since children’s bodies are a little different, shrapnel affected them in a different pattern. Most of the IEDs, car bombs and suicide bombs throw fragments from a pretty low angle, blasting upward. Since children are shorter, they are more likely to have head and neck injuries than adults. Many of these head injuries were lethal but we did save some. In addition, the secondary effects of the war created another common injury. Since power was so scarce, many families would use open flame for heating and cooking in their homes. We frequently received children who had been burned at home by these cooking fires.
A.E.: What was the hardest thing you ever had to say to a parent? How were you able to communicate this?
Dr. Coppola: The toughest discussion I ever had to make was explaining to a family that their little boy was actually a female hermaphrodite. This family had brought their child to the hospital, burned, and after I dressed his wounds, they asked me to examine his little brother who “didn’t look right down there.” An examination and an ultrasound revealed that the younger brother was actually a little girl with ovaries and a womb. With the help of an Iraqi interpreter, I painstakingly explained my findings to the incredulous parents. It was shocking and very difficult for them to accept as I describe in the book. We spoke for a long time, and I answered many questions, but they were able to leave the hospital with an understanding of what their child faced.
A.E.: In revising the letters for publication, did you ever find yourself transported back to Iraq?
Dr.Coppola: I originally wrote my letters to give people back home a small glimpse of life on a military base in Iraq. It was a challenge to convert my letters into a narrative, because of the difficulty revisiting some of the memories of my two tours. As I retold and combined the stories of individuals who had lived or died in moments of intense struggle and tragedy, I felt like I was going through it all over again. It was impossible to read descriptions of children I treated without having their faces appear before my eyes. My memories had not changed, but I found I had tucked them away into a hidden place in my mind. If anything, the experience of coalescing my story has made me understand much better what we all went through over there.
For more information, please visit Dr. Coppola's website.
A.E.: Did you ever think you would be called up to war? Do you remember where you were when you found out you would be called up to war? Describe your initial reaction.
Dr. Coppola: I first became interested in the military to pay for medical school, but in the end I signed up out of a desire to give something back to my country. I actually expected that I would be called up for duty during wartime at some point in my life and I hoped that I would be useful to the troops if the call came. But what I failed to anticipate was being deployed in a war that seemed so completely senseless and unnecessary. As soon as the war started, all of the surgeons in my flight knew we would be deploying sooner or later. It was our duty to keep the combat support hospital in Iraq up and running for the troops at all times. So by the time my deployment orders actually came, they had been long expected. My reaction was relief that I had a defined date so my family and I could plan for deployment, even though it meant we were facing a temporary separation.
A.E.: You treated a number of children in Iraq. What types of injuries were you seeing? Were these all from bombs and gunfire or were there other sorts of treatments you performed?
Dr. Coppola: In Coppola: A Pediatric Surgeon in Iraq (www.coppolathebook.com), I describe how our combat support hospital in Balad treated troops, enemy combatants, and civilians, including children. For the most part, children were receiving the same injuries that adults were. The most common were blast injuries, with accompanying shrapnel and burns. Since children’s bodies are a little different, shrapnel affected them in a different pattern. Most of the IEDs, car bombs and suicide bombs throw fragments from a pretty low angle, blasting upward. Since children are shorter, they are more likely to have head and neck injuries than adults. Many of these head injuries were lethal but we did save some. In addition, the secondary effects of the war created another common injury. Since power was so scarce, many families would use open flame for heating and cooking in their homes. We frequently received children who had been burned at home by these cooking fires.
A.E.: What was the hardest thing you ever had to say to a parent? How were you able to communicate this?
Dr. Coppola: The toughest discussion I ever had to make was explaining to a family that their little boy was actually a female hermaphrodite. This family had brought their child to the hospital, burned, and after I dressed his wounds, they asked me to examine his little brother who “didn’t look right down there.” An examination and an ultrasound revealed that the younger brother was actually a little girl with ovaries and a womb. With the help of an Iraqi interpreter, I painstakingly explained my findings to the incredulous parents. It was shocking and very difficult for them to accept as I describe in the book. We spoke for a long time, and I answered many questions, but they were able to leave the hospital with an understanding of what their child faced.
A.E.: In revising the letters for publication, did you ever find yourself transported back to Iraq?
Dr.Coppola: I originally wrote my letters to give people back home a small glimpse of life on a military base in Iraq. It was a challenge to convert my letters into a narrative, because of the difficulty revisiting some of the memories of my two tours. As I retold and combined the stories of individuals who had lived or died in moments of intense struggle and tragedy, I felt like I was going through it all over again. It was impossible to read descriptions of children I treated without having their faces appear before my eyes. My memories had not changed, but I found I had tucked them away into a hidden place in my mind. If anything, the experience of coalescing my story has made me understand much better what we all went through over there.
For more information, please visit Dr. Coppola's website.
1 comments:
What a great interview and a distinct point of view. This is one I definitely want to read.
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