U.S. soldiers deploy to bring medical help to Romania

U.S. soldiers bring medical assistance to rural villages in Romania
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, July 28, 2008

BABADAG, Romania — U.S. soldiers are traveling to isolated rural settlements in Romania to provide health care to people who seldom see doctors, dentists or veterinarians.

They are part of a Humanitarian Civil Assistance team, including Romanian medical personnel, vision specialists, dentists and veterinarians, that is nearing the end of a six-week mission to Romania. Their services are in conjunction with this year’s Joint Task Force East rotation.

JTF East involves the deployment of 900 U.S. personnel to Romania and Bulgaria to train over the summer.

Capt. Robert Dennis, who is deployed to Romania as an intensive care nurse with the 212th Combat Surgical Hospital, said the assistance team visits four villages each week and sees between 65 and 80 patients in each village.

The 34-year-old Philadelphia native said most villages don’t have a doctor and residents must go to a larger town for care. For specialized care, villagers must go to a big city such as Tulcea, Bucharest or Constanta, he said.

"Many of the roads are dirt tracks so they can’t get to the larger cities unless they have a functioning mule," he added.
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