Wounded

Farah Nosh

Getty Images / TIME Magazine / The New York Times

Muaad Ibnayan Hadi (age 26, b.1980) on an examination table at The New Beginning prosthetic clinic in the Green Zone, March 2006. Injured at 11:30a.m.September 15, 2005 by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) resulting in a triple amputation. “It was a Thursday, and we were getting ready for a friend’s wedding at10: 30 in the morning, we boarded a Costar transport van. We reached the New Baghdad Bridge and there was an Iraqi police convoy behind us. As soon as we reached the bridge there was a blast. An IED. I didn’t have any sense of myself. We were 18 all together, 3 died, 4 with injuries. I was the worse injury. After a while, I lifted my head and I knew that I was broken, but I didn’t know that my legs were gone. Then, I went into surgery. I lost my legs and my left hand. I had five operations. They cut one leg twice because of gangrene. My hand, they never found it in the van. The emergeny operation was no cost to me, but my family has paid for everything since. Every needle is 25,000 Dinars. I needed one a day. Then from day to day we would rent a taxi to take us to see various doctors. I just want to walk. I can’t go outside and see the world, and see my friends, I can’t. My soul can’t stand it. I can’t sleep because my mind is broken. I think a lot. I think of my crew, of going out, of walking, of what was before. I see my picture before. I become sad, this injury is difficult. I just want to walk. I had marriage on my mind before the accident. Her name is Athra, and I haven’t forgotten her. She came to visit me twice, but the distance is far for her. I want to walk so that I can get married.”

Farah Nosh, "Wounded," in POYi Archive, Item #46173, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/46173 (accessed April 25, 2024).