Stories: Collateral Damage: The War inside Iraq's Hospitals

A young girl is rushed into the emergency room by hospital workers at Saddam Children's Park Nurse Villa Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq She was pronounced dead on arrival. She and her brother were playing with an unexploded cluster bomb that detonated, killing both of them. During the initial invasion by U.S. troops, Iraq experienced a public health crisis as war victims flooded hospitals and clinics. (Chris Schneider/EW Scripps)
  
Sahara Ibrahim holds her head in grief while her daughter, Zena Jassim, 9, lays unconscious at Saddam Children's Park Nurse Villa Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq. Zena has been diagnosed with meningitis. Doctors said that the war environment caused a breakdown in public health services. The combination of poor sanitation and untreated water have led to an increase in infectious disease. (Chris Schneider/EW Scripps)
  
A doctor holds up an X-ray showing a piece of shrapnel in the body of a boy at Al Nafas Hospital in Baghdad. The wound paralyzed the child. Casualty rates have slowed since the end of the invasion but hospitals are still in state of crisis. (Chris Schneider/EW Scripps)
     
  
Azhar Abboud waits in the emergency room with her family at Al Kindi Hospital in Baghdad. She had dystentery due to drinking contaminated water. (Chris Schneider/EW Scripps)
   
Najea Hussein Hammodi replaces the cover on a body at Al Nafas Hospital in Baghdad. The man was shot and killed by thieves. Looting and violence have increased since civil order broke down in Iraq after the U.S. invasion. (Chris Schneider/EW Scripps)
   
A volunteer digs up a body buried on the grounds at Saddam Children's park Nurse Villa Hospital in Bagdad. Islamic law states that a corpse must be buried within three days. During the war, so many unidentified bodies piled up at the hospital that they had to bury them outside the hospital. The volunteers dig up the dead so that the family can identify them and then take them away for a proper burial. (Chris Schneider/EW Scripps)
     
  
Husahm Ahmed, 12, screams as doctors remove dead skin from his face and neck after he was burned by a piece of unexploded munitions. Many children have been killed or maimed by playing with unexploded ordnance that litters the ground. (Chris Schneider/EW Scripps)
   
An Iraqi man cries as members of his family are unearthed at Saddam Children's Park Nurse Villa Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq. During the war so many unidentified bodies piled up at the hospital that they had to bury them on the grounds. The volunteers dig up the buried dead so the family can identify them and then take them away for a proper burial. (Chris Schneider/EW Scripps)
   
Relatives carry the casket of a relative unearthed at Saddam Children's park Nurse Villa Hospital in Bagdad. (Chris Schneider/EW Scripps)
     
  
A man holds the Koran next to a grave with an Iraqi flag draped over it at Saddam Children's Park Nurse Villa Hospital in Baghdad. (Chris Schneider/EW Scripps