During voluntary tours of duty as an Army medical officer for Operation Iraqi FreedomCamp Spearhead, Shuaiba, Kuwait, in 2003 and Forward Operating Base Warrior, Kirkuk, Iraq, in 2005Dr. Charles L. Garbarino kept family members and friends informed about his experiences by typing e-mails and scribbling other thoughts in a diary.
When he returned home from his second tour of duty, those same family members and friends encouraged him to write a book about his experiences as a pediatrician who cared for soldiers in the combat zone.
"People said to me, 'you have to write a book,'" said Dr. Garbarino, a colonel in the New Jersey National Guard who practices pediatrics in West Orange, N.J. "They'd say, 'Your e-mails were so touching and they brought out so many emotions. You made us realize what war really is; you have to tell your story.' I said, 'I'm a street kid from Brooklyn and you want me to write a book.'"
A friend introduced him to Marc S. Goldberg, a writer who helped him sift through those e-mails and diaries to assemble "Pediatrician Soldier: The Man the Kids Call 'Dr. Charlie' Goes to War" (Bloomington, Ind.: inuiverse.com
Presented in essay form, the book includes Dr. Garbarino's candid thoughts about what it means to be deployed as a soldier; the pediatrician's role in caring for a soldier in a combat zone; postdeployment medical care; how posttraumatic stress disorder affects soldiers and their families; the impact of deployment on the family structure; and the role civilian pediatricians can play in caring for children of deployed soldiers.
A palpable theme throughout the book is the importance of bringing compassion to all aspects of medical care. In Iraq and in other theaters of combat in the Middle East, he explained, "what we have for the soldiers resembles a M*A*S*H unit. You're doing the best you can. But the thing is, there is a lot more hand holding and compassion when you're out in that battlefield or in that combat zone with the soldier. People here in the United States don't appreciate how much they have and how good the medical care is. Many people in Iraq get medical care from veterinarians."
During his 90-day assignment at Camp Spearhead, a soldier came to Dr. Garbarino complaining of chest pain. Every symptom suggested he was having a major heart attack.
"I was in a tent in the middle of nowhere, and I had to take him to a medical facility about 45 minutes away," recalled Dr. Garbarino, who was the first N. J. Army National Guard physician deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom. "I was so afraid for him that I rode along with him in the ambulance. I said, 'We're going to have a long ride together. Let's talk.' He said, 'Can we pray?' I said, 'That would be fine.' I'm not one that goes to church regularlyI maybe go three to four times a yearbut on the way we prayed and read the Bible, and he felt peace. I felt peace."
During an office visit with another soldier at Forward Operating Base Warrior, Dr. Garbarino addressed the man's chief complaint but noticed that his eyes were welling up with tears. "I told him, 'I'll be right back,'" Dr. Garbarino said. "I went into the next room, put on my Mickey Mouse shirt, put on my red clown nose that was given to me by Dr. Patch Adams, and I put on my twirly hat. Then I came back to the exam room and said, 'Hi. I'm your doctor.' And he just started to laugh. Then I held his hand and he cried. That, I think, is paramount. Physicians have to realize that just holding someone's hand is just as important as anything else."
A self-described no-nonsense kid from Brooklyn, Dr. Garbarino refuses to consider himself a hero for the service he provided on those two tours. "The real heroes are all the fallen soldiers and those who have come back emotionally, physically, or mentally traumatized," he emphasized. "Those are your heroes, as are all the people these soldiers left behind when they went to war. There is one hero in my family. It's not me; it's my wife, Lydia."
He went on to note that when soldiers return from deployment, "We all return changed. I had some PTSD when I returned. One day, I was sleeping and I woke up in a cold sweat, saying, 'I gotta get it! I gotta get it!' I finally realized I was home, and that what I was reaching for was my weapon. I've been okay, but so many soldiers are coming back with physical problems such as missing limbs, or they've been mentally traumatized. They hear somebody drop a box and they duck."