Iraq honour for West Mid nurse

Oct 6 2008 By Jessica Thomas

Paul Saines

A brave West Middlesex Hospital nurse has been awarded two prestigious medals after saving the lives of soldiers and civilians in Iraq.

Paul Saines found himself working on the frontline at the British Field Hospital, while acting as medic to the British Embassy in Saddam Hussein's former palace in Basra, after leaving the UK in March 2004 to respond to an appeal for A&E nurses to work for the UN.

"We would get jet-mortered and rocketed, and we regularly came under attack," said Paul, 45. "I got back in one piece though.

"Because I got to know the soldiers, you are much closer to the people you are looking after. I knew some of the injured who were bought in and I lost some good mates. Some of them just young lads."

Recruited through Frontier Medical, Paul was in Iraq for almost a year and a half before returning in October 2005.

"It was challenging and varied," he said. "One day while working at the palace, I resuscitated a child who had been crushed by a wall in the middle of a hostile crowd, which was quite scary. Then the next day I was shooting across the desert in a special forces helicopter trying to keep a senior government official alive."

Paul was awarded the Iraq Campaign Medal, an honour that normally only soldiers receive, and the Iraq Reconstruction Service Medal on September 3. "I am really proud, it just came out of the blue," he said. "I've been led to believe that it is quite rare for someone like me to get these medals."