Why I Just Love This Country

From WashTimes:

A renowned Atlanta medical center has agreed to treat without charge a decorated Iraqi army captain paralyzed in an insurgent attack during home leave Christmas Day.

The case of Capt. Furat, chronicled in The Washington Times, has been taken up by U.S. Army officers who consider him a hero and by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, who is working to clear bureaucratic hurdles so that the Iraqi soldier can come to the United States for treatment.

Officials from Atlanta's Shepherd Center said they would treat the 28-year-old captain pro bono in response to a personal appeal Tuesday by U.S. Army officers from two battalions attached to Capt. Furat's unit in Iraq's Diyala province.

Capt. Furat -- his real name is being withheld to protect his family in Iraq -- wept upon hearing the news.

"Really, I don't know how to thank everybody for this," he said in a telephone interview from his hospital bed at the giant U.S. Air Force field hospital in Balad, Iraq.

The medical director of the Shepherd Center is Donald P. Leslie, M.D. You might want to send him a thank-you email, care of webmaster@shepherd.org.