Dr. Craig Lambrecht called home on Christmas Day with some good news.

He'd been able to secure passage for an Iraqi girl to Syracuse, N.Y., where she will undergo surgery to repair a hole in her heart. It was a procedure that could not be safely performed where she was.

"He was overjoyed," Lambrecht's wife, Jewel, said.

Dr. Lambrecht is as much a humanitarian as he is a physician. That is not news to soldiers and civilians in Iraq, where Lambrecht is currently serving his second tour of duty as the senior medical officer in a region near Baghdad. Nor is it news to Lambrecht's colleagues at Bismarck's Medcenter One hospital, where he is medical director.

"He is truly a healer at heart, and not just by trade," said Dr. Michael J. McIntee, a Medcenter physician.

Neither Lambrecht's compassion nor his good deeds can be summed up in a short newspaper article, so let us list just one: He is the driving force behind a small, but incredibly important, clinic outside of Baghdad. Lambrecht is a colonel in the North Dakota National Guard, and his main mission now is overseeing and providing medical care for American military personnel. But he also has taken up the role of providing care for Iraqi children at the country's only pediatric burn-care facility. He is one of two doctors who work at the makeshift Smith Gate Clinic, and is the facility's major fundraiser. He initiated a program - now run through the Medcenter One Foundation - to raise money and supplies for the burn clinic. Lambrecht wants to gather enough supplies for the clinic to operate for at least another year and a half, even though his tour ends in just a few weeks.

Jim Cooper, Medcenter's president and CEO, probably summed it up best.

"No matter what one's personal opinion is about the war in Iraq," Cooper said, "it is evident that Dr. Lambrecht has provided an inspiration for all."

- Tony Spilde