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Monday, January 2, 2006
Noor, days from surgery, otherwise developmentally normal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Iraqi baby in Atlanta for life-saving medical care has weakness or paralysis in her legs but is otherwise developmentally normal, doctors determined Monday.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta said 3-month-old Noor al-Zahra is “smiling, interactive and playful” and is “eating well and gaining weight.” The hospital is assembling a team to perform free surgery tentatively scheduled for Monday.
Baby Noor’s father and grandmother have spent hours by her side at the hospital since the three arrived Saturday afternoon.
“They just continually say how grateful they are for this opportunity, that it’s a dream come true,â€? said Helen Shepard, development director for Childspring International, a Christian nonprofit that brings children to the United States for treatment. “There’s a lot of laughter going on, tears of joy.”
Soldiers from the Georgia-based 48th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq found Baby Noor, as she has come to be known, on a raid last month. The infant had a growth on her back — skin covering an opening where her spine has not fully formed. Doctors later determined she suffers from a severe form of spina bifida. Lt. Jeff Morgan of Douglas County asked a friend in metro Atlanta, Debbie Stone, if she could arrange medical care for Noor.
Childspring agreed to help bring Noor here, the U.S. military and Delta Air Lines flew the family for free and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta agreed to treat her.
Noor’s father, Haider, and grandmother, Soad, shuttle between the hospital and the home of a host family in Atlanta. They have phoned the baby’s 18-year-old mother, in the Abu Ghraib neighborhood just west of Baghdad, to keep her informed.
“She misses her baby terribly,” Shepard said. “She has a million questions.”
Doctors provided a few answers Monday.
Dr. Roger Hudgins, lead nureosurgeon at Children’s Healthcare, found that a mass on Noor’s back was not leaking fluid, which means her chances are low of contracting meningitis, said Kevin McClelland, a hospital spokesman. The doctor found “weakness or paralysis in the lower extremities, which will likely impair her ability to walk.” But he believes the baby will otherwise develop normally.
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