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DEL.ICIO.USBaby Noor may not need Wednesday surgery
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Doctors at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta will decide Wednesday whether to proceed with plans for a second surgery on 3-month-old Noor al-Zahra of Iraq, the hospital said Tuesday.
Surgeons scanned Noor’s brain today to look for a build-up of fluid, common in such cases, but the exam found no such accumulation, the hospital said in a statement. Dr. Roger Hudgins, the hospital’s chief neurosurgeon, has tentatively scheduled a surgery for Wednesday to insert a shunt that would drain fluid, but the hospital said he will wait until tomorrow before deciding whether to proceed.
Noor continued to rest at the hospital Tuesday, a day after Hudgins and a colleague performed for free a life-changing operation on a baby encountered by National Guard soldiers from Georgia who were raiding a house near Baghdad last month.
Doctors say Baby Noor was smiling and cooing after the first surgery to correct a severe birth defect.
Hudgins told CBS on Tuesday morning that the 3-month-old from Iraq had a quiet and peaceful night.
After surgeons delivered good news from the operating room Monday morning, a wave of relief washed over the baby’s grandmother Soad.
Tense muscles relaxed. An electric smile lit up her face. She wept. “The results are good,” Soad said through an interpreter. “Thank God. Thank God.”
She also thanked Hudgins, chief neurosurgeon at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, where the operation was performed.
“Noor is very, very strong,” the grandmother said. “From her first days, she’s been very strong.”
“She is very strong because her family is strong,” Hudgins said.
Hudgins and Dr. Fernando Burstein operated on Baby Noor, as she has come to be known, nine days after the infant arrived in Atlanta from Iraq suffering from a severe case of spina bifida.
They removed a mass of skin from the baby’s back and repaired a damaged part of her spinal cord. Their efforts came a month after Georgia National Guard soldiers in Iraq encountered Noor while raiding a house near Baghdad.
Doctors in Iraq told Noor’s family they could not treat her and that she probably would die within 45 days. With help from friends in metro Atlanta, though, the soldiers made connections that led to Monday’s surgery on Noor.
Hudgins said the operation went better than expected. He said the baby will be paralyzed from the waist down and have limited control of her bowels and bladder, but he hopes she otherwise will be developmentally and mentally normal.
He said he plans to monitor her today for signs of a fluid buildup in her brain, common in similar spina bifida cases. If he finds fluid, he may insert a shunt Wednesday to drain the fluid.
Or, he said, he may try to create an internal opening to drain fluid. One benefit of the internal option is that it would not require as much care from a neurosurgeon in Iraq.
“She just radiates good feeling,” Hudgins said of Noor. “We’re getting to the point where we love this child.”
Noor’s father and grandmother, who accompanied her to Atlanta, spoke with relatives in Iraq after the surgery, said Christina Porter of Childspring International, a Christian charity that brings ill children to the United States for medical help.
“We’ve been through a lot of calling cards,” she said. Porter said the father and grandmother are communicating with an Atlanta host family with “charades and sign language.” The father and grandmother speak Arabic; members of the host family speak English, Farsi and Turkish, she said.
Hudgins saluted the baby’s grandmother for having “the courage to hold [Noor] up to men with guns.” He praised members of a Gainesville-based unit of the 48th Brigade Combat Team for taking an interest in Noor.
“They deserve a tremendous amount of credit,” he said.
In Baghdad, soldiers from the unit that helped send Noor to Atlanta watched a news conference about the baby’s surgery on a small computer screen in Sgt. 1st Class Michael Sonen’strailer.
“I think we are all relieved that she now has the opportunity for a decent life,” said Sonen, a soldier with the Gainesville-based Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment.
“This is what America does best — help people,” said Sonen, a furniture maker from Dahlonega.
Staff Sgt. David Squires, who works for a hearing aid company in Gainesville, said he hopes the soldiers’ intervention gave Noor a “better chance at life.” “If nothing else, it showed the family that we took time out to help,” he said. “This small gesture might go a long way in establishing goodwill among the people.”
Doctors expect Noor to stay in Atanta for at least two months for observation and additional treatment.
“It’s hard to tell sometimes if we made a difference here in Iraq,” Squires said. “This baby made us feel like we did.”
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Comments
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By Maria
January 9, 2006 10:43 PM | Link to this
This really touches my heart to know this baby is being helped. I can’t help but to feel sad that she will never walk and the quality of life she will have in Iraq. My prayers go out to this baby and her family.
By Mary Johnson
January 10, 2006 08:54 AM | Link to this
Extraordinary instances such as what these soldiers have done restore my faith in not just American, but HUMAN values. I applaud them for making the initial (and most vital) efforts to save a little girl’s life. By doing so, they most certainly have made a difference, not only in Baby Noor’s life, but also affecting many others who are inspired by their actions and a precious child’s survival. It really is a beautiful thing that they have done.
By Julian Garrett
January 10, 2006 09:33 AM | Link to this
I think it is wonderful what we are doing for “Baby Noor” and wish her the best, but I have a son in Iraq and had rather hear news from the soldiers. I think we can get all of the news on “Baby Noor” from the ample local news coverage. Thank you for covering the daily lives of our troops. Julian Garrett
By Anne
January 10, 2006 10:52 AM | Link to this
I will pray for little Miss Noor and her family, and hope Americ’s efforts are a sign of a quick coming of peace to both ouor lands.
By Susie
January 10, 2006 01:10 PM | Link to this
Thank you for continuing to cover the Baby Noor story and how the guys from the Gainesville Unit,including Augusta Area soldiers are being kept in the loop recieving info on how she is doing.My son is with the group that were the first to find her on the raid and by the story continuing we as parents and wives of those involved are being informed of our own and how they are doing. We have waited our turn for Moni to get to the Baghdad area to cover our soldiers and I’m sure she won’t get to stay in their area for very long before moving on to the next group to visit.It just happened the timing was perfect.Thanks again to Moni and the other reporters that are taking the time to inform the parents and family members over here how our soldiers are doing.
By Heather
January 10, 2006 01:20 PM | Link to this
You all are an example for what is good about America. God Bless You and take care of each and every one of your brothers.
By Sherry
January 10, 2006 01:21 PM | Link to this
Baby Noor is a human being…whether Iraqi, Egyptian, American or Russian..first and foremost she is a child of God. I for one have 2 grandchildren on the peachcare program and better medical care cannot be found anywhere. Our troops are away from home away from their families and jobs and they are over in a foreign hostile country risking their lives daily to protect us and our families. God bless the troops, God bless Baby Noor and all of God’s children…black, white, red, yellow…Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu..and the list goes on….but most importantly may God bless all these bitter people who have no lives other than to blast our government for helping out one small baby who otherwise had no future.
By Kia
January 10, 2006 03:01 PM | Link to this
It is a great thing that dispite all the things that are going on in Iraq that these soldiers would address the situation at hand. These soldiers will truly be blessed for taking this little baby’s well being into consideration.
By Mistee Lambert
January 11, 2006 12:17 AM | Link to this
I think this is a wonderful thing, helping this baby who would not have had this opportunity at life otherwise. God Bless her and her family. Thanks to the soldiers who have made this possible,GOD BLESS THEM !!!
By Nicole
January 12, 2006 05:45 PM | Link to this
i may be only 14 but i know one thing is true all that sherry said is true.That baby is a child of God and no matter the race or religion she deserves a chance at a good life just like you and me.The people who say it was not right to help her should put theirselves in baby noor’s families shoes. wouldn’t you want somebody to help your baby?God bless the soldiers and surgeons who have hepled her and god bless her family
By Ellen Pierce
January 13, 2006 06:17 AM | Link to this
Baby Noor may be a future influencer of peace in the world. Her family will think of America and Americans with kindness. it is amazing how actually spending time with people that are your enemies can put a human face on them and change the enemy perception. We need more of this individual attention instead of dumping money into countries to be wasted by their governments instead of helping the people who we are trying to help
By JoAnn
January 13, 2006 06:59 AM | Link to this
A baby has a chance at life thanks to many heroic efforts… the soldiers who found her, church members who took up her cause, officials who arranged for her to come to our country, doctors and nurses who so generously gave of their time and talents. So many people have been praying for her ~~~ God bless America!!! And I pray Baby Noor will come to know Jesus as Lord and be blessed by that knowledge.
By Marie
January 13, 2006 04:50 PM | Link to this
Nicole. You may only be fourteen but it seems to me that you are alot wiser than alot of the adults here! If I was your mother I would be very very proud of you!! God Bless