Slain doctors brought medical care to Afghanistan

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Slain doctors brought medical care to Afghanistan

By Wyatt, Associated Press Writer – 14 mins ago

DENVER – Members of a medical team gunned down in Afghanistan brought some of

the first toothbrushes and eyeglasses villagers had ever seen and spent no time

talking about religion as they provided medical care, friends and aid

organizations said Sunday.

Dr. Grams, 51, had quit his dental practice in Durango, Colo., four years

ago to work full-time giving impoverished children free dental care in Nepal and

Afghanistan, said Katy Shaw of Global Dental Relief, a Denver-based group that

sends teams of dentists around the globe. He was killed Thursday, Shaw said,

along with five other Americans, two Afghans, one German and a Briton.

" This just breaks my heart, " she said.

The bodies of the assassinated medical team were returned to Kabul aboard

helicopters Sunday and the families of the six Americans were formally notified

of their deaths after U.S. officials confirmed their identities, said Caitlin

Hayden, a spokeswoman for the embassy.

The Taliban has claimed credit for the attack, saying the workers were trying to

convert Muslims to Christianity.

But Grams' former partner at the Durango practice told the Associated Press

Sunday that the medical group had no religious mission.

Grams had " absolutely zero interest in proselytizing, " Dr. Heinicke

said.

Officials have said the victims also included team leader Tom Little, an

optometrist from Delmar, New York, who had lived in Afghanistan for about 30

years, and Dr. Woo, who gave up a job in a private clinic in London to do

humanitarian work in Afghanistan.

The family of Glen Lapp, 40, of Lancaster, Pa., learned of his death Sunday,

according to the Mennonite Central Committee, a relief group based in Akron, Pa.

Lapp was a graduate of Eastern Mennonite University and had a nursing degree

from s Hopkins University, the group said. He had volunteered to help with

the aid response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita and worked as a nurse in

Lancaster, New York City and Supai, Ariz.

Lapp's mother, , said Sunday the family was referring calls to the Mennonite

group.

Khris Nedam, head of the Kids 4 Afghan Kids charity that builds schools and

wells in Afghanistan, said the members of the medical team were " serving the

least for all the right reasons. " She knew both Little and Grams.

" The kids had never seen toothbrushes, and Tom brought thousands of them. He

trained them how to brush their teeth, and you should've seen the way they

smiled after they learned to brush their teeth, " Nedam said Sunday.

Nedam also said the medical group spent no time talking about religion.

" Their mission was humanitarian, and they went there to help people, " Nedam

said, a third-grade teacher from Livonia, Mich.

The team was attacked while returning to Kabul after a two-week mission in the

remote Parun valley of Nuristan province about 160 miles (260 kilometers) north

of Kabul. The bullet-riddled bodies were found Friday near three four-wheeled

drive vehicles in a wooded area just off the main road through a narrow valley

in the Kuran Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan.

The gunmen spared an Afghan driver who told police he recited verses from the

Islamic holy book the Quran as he begged for his life.

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