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All three networks continued their medical features series. CBS' Matters of the Heart is not war related. The network assigned Sanjay Gupta, visiting from CNN, to examine a heart valve problem that is a common birth defect. Microsurgeons at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston can now repair the grape-sized fetal heart while it is still in the womb. Such surgery does not even leave a scar.
ABC and NBC continued to focus on wartime medicine. In his first World News feature since his brains were almost blown out, ABC's Bob Woodruff took A Closer Look at the convalescence of Jeff Landay, a Marine corporal, who shared his wounds--but not his rehab treatment. "Medical complications and disputes with the VA have left Jeff without any therapy in the last six months."
In Baghdad, NBC's Wounds of War series turned to civilian casualties. Robert Bazell told us that very few are lucky enough to be treated by Americans. He showed us the exception, a legless five-year-old girl, maimed by a random mortar shell and cared for by military medics. A Pentagon contractor who made a fortune building US bases in Iraq paid to fly the girl to a Sacramento hospital for rehabilitation. Her mother must remain anonymous because she would be assassinated if it were known she sought help from the United States. The girl would have ended up a cripple if she had attended an Iraqi hospital.
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