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DEL.ICIO.USFear, future weigh on Baby Noor’s family
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Abu Ghraib, Iraq — Family members of Noor al-Zahra, the baby with a birth defect who underwent life-saving surgery in Atlanta this week, said Tuesday they were considering moving because of possible retribution by anti-American insurgents.
The family also told soldiers from the Gainesville-based 48th Brigade Combat Team they were worried they they would not be able to provide a lifetime of care for Noor, who doctors expect will be paralyzed from the waist down and will have limited control of her bowels and bladder.
Noor’s grandfather, Khalaf, said the family realized Noor would need specialized care when she returned to Iraq.
But the local hospital in Abu Ghraib is sparsely stocked and has no facilities to treat the kinds of problems Noor might develop.
In the past, soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment’s Charlie Company have helped stock the pharmacy shelves with their own supplies.
Noor’s family may have to take her into Baghdad, where hospitals have better resources.
“She’s likely to need a pediatrician, at least on an annual basis,” said Maj. Susan Robinson, an Army doctor at Camp Liberty who examined Noor before she left for Atlanta.
“Iraq has a lot of good doctors. It’s a matter of getting their facilities together.”
Surgeons at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which is treating Noor for free, plan to decide today whether to proceed with a second surgery.
They performed a scan Tuesday to check for a buildup of fluid in the baby’s head, common in such cases, but found none, hospital officials said.
Doctors plan to continue monitoring her for evidence of fluid accumulation and will perform surgery today to insert a shunt to drain fluid if they find any buildup. Noor could remain in the hospital for several more days.
In Abu Ghraib, Noor’s mother, Iman, looked at Atlanta Journal-Constitution photographs of her little girl taken Monday after Dr. Roger Hudgins and a colleague removed a growth from her back.
Iman smiled in amazement, showing the photo to several of her sisters-in-law.
“I am very happy that it [the growth] was removed,” Iman said. “I am grateful to the Americans. But I am still very worried for my baby.”
She said she understood that Noor would likely be in a wheelchair and need extra care.
“But at least this is life, not death,” Iman said.
Noor was born in September with a severe form of spina bifida. Her spinal cord had not fully closed during Iman’s pregnancy.
Iman said she wished she could be with Noor but that the family decided it was not proper for a young Iraqi woman to travel so far from home.
“I can take care of Noor. I am her mother,” Iman said. “But about medicine, about money, there is nothing I can do.”
Khalaf said his family was of modest means. He asked Sgt. 1st Class Michael Sonen about setting up a cash flow from donations in the United States to his bank account here.
He said Noor’s father, Haider, who accompanied his daughter to Atlanta, did not graduate from high school and sometimes is unemployed.
Sonen tried to allay Khalaf’s fears by telling him that charitable organizations in Atlanta had collected money for Noor’s care.
But even with financial help, Noor’s life is not likely to be easy in the slums of Abu Ghraib.
“She’ll return to the life she was born into,” Sonen said. “It will be difficult. But I do believe some Americans will maintain contact with the family and try to support her recovery.”
Noor’s family lives in a squalid neighborhood, where clean water and electricity are scarce and violence is common.
The pockmarked road outside Noor’s home was covered in ankle-deep mud and slushy sewage on Tuesday.
The family home is not well-suited for a child in a wheelchair. The bathroom is outdoors, in a courtyard.
Relatives said they were thinking of selling the house.
Noor’s aunt, Hannan, said the family feared that too much publicity surrounding “Baby Noor,” as the soldiers have come to call her, may make them a target for insurgents.
Hannan said the risk was worth it in order to give Noor a chance at a normal life.
“We are grateful and thankful to the Americans but the situation is dangerous in this city,” she said. “It will not be easy for us.”
Robinson said she was concerned that the family might move to a rural area where adequate medical care was lacking.
“That would be a problem,” she said, especially if a shunt is inserted to help drain fluid buildup in the brain. “That would mean a lot more maintenance.”
The family knew when they accepted assistance from the American soldiers that it meant putting the family at risk.
The soldiers who helped rescue Noor also realized their good deed could come at a price.
“Will the insurgency kill her?” Sonen said. “That is my deepest fear. To know that a child was killed just because we gave her help — that’s a heavy burden to carry.”
Staff writer Mark Bixler in Atlanta contributed to this article.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Barbara Scott
January 11, 2006 07:10 PM | Link to this
Why can’t the entire family be moved here? They know the family remaining there is in danger, they say the streets are full of garbage and sewage, and if she is taken back to Iraq she will not have adequate medical care. Also apparently the family doesn’t have the resources to care for her medical needs. I am sure some wealthy individual would gladly sponsor this family so they can be brought here. Why send this family back to almost certain death in a poverty stricken country? The mother is apparently too young and inexperienced to care for this child yet she needs to be here with her husband and the grandmother as well.
Sounds to me like a simple solution…but of course I know it would not be that simple.
B. Scott
By Ms. Martha
January 12, 2006 10:45 AM | Link to this
I agree with the last person. I think they should move the family here.
By just some questions..
January 12, 2006 11:07 AM | Link to this
Everyone knew what they were getting into when they offered to help this baby and her family. Like many reader’s had said before—what is going to happen to this child and family when our soldiers leave? I don’t see our soldiers going back there on vaction.. I am glad that this child now can live but in the same boat, what kind of life is that going to be, when the family can’t afford help. They all live together in a small house, half run down, and away from everything. You know, Iraq is not a pretty place, and we don’t add any help to that, when some of our own Soldiers were sent on a mission recently to dump human waste beside a roadside..Everyone knows how the Iraq child and adults stand beside the roadside and even on the road to get free things from our soldiers.. What is really going to happen when we stop going over there..
By Pstar
January 12, 2006 11:07 AM | Link to this
My heart bleeds for Baby Noor and the plight of her family. However, why can’t we show the same love and support to American families? Most of us are able to provide for our families. However, there are still some families in the USA that don’t have basic medical care, shelter, food, etc. Where is the support for those AMERICAN citizens?
By Ruby Hollender
January 12, 2006 12:53 PM | Link to this
I agree with Barbara Scott, her family needs to be here. I can’t imagine staying away from my child.
By Makes no sense
January 12, 2006 01:03 PM | Link to this
B Scott I have a large heart but we can not bring every family from Iraq over here to live just because they may be in danger (that would be all of them). Let’s concentrate on bringing our soldiers home.
By Opinion
January 12, 2006 01:29 PM | Link to this
Does it occur to anyone that the news media should offer a viable solution? If this incident had not been blown up into sensational media coverage, if it had been handled quietly (covertly) with the safety of the baby and family foremost in the minds rather than the glory of the media, then would this family be in such danger?? It has been a known fact all along that any Iraqi who received American aid or offers aid to an American is in danger. Let me state here to be blatantly clear: I am a supporter of helping this baby - it is the humanitarian thing to do and bless PFC Donnelly for getting the whole thing started with the photo he took. Thanks, soldier.
Why is the USA the only country where this family would be safe? Why not a European country closer to the extended family? AND will the extended family of Noor pay the price for the US helping this child? … God protect Noor and her family.
Thanks to the soldiers and all concerned with helping this infant but if it had not been BIG news to advertise the goodness of Americans to the terrorists the family just might be in a safer position. Such is the situation now.
God please protect our military and bring them home safely and protect Noor and her family.
By lisa
January 12, 2006 02:52 PM | Link to this
Although the pictures and story of baby Noor is heartwarming…
The cynic in me says it is just a diversion from what is really going on in Iraq…
There are people right here in Atlanta that need operations, food, shelter and security.
By Taiwana
January 12, 2006 03:09 PM | Link to this
My heart goes out to this family but I don’t understand how they can request the mother to stay home and be this far from her newborn with all that this child is going through this is the bonding time for babies and their parents. Also this facility has donated the time and effort to saving this child only to have her go home to where she may not survive. What sense does that make? I don’t know about moving the whole family here but at least the child (Noor) and her mother and father. I also agree with the other comments like when are we going to start taking care of home(USA). How can we be so devoted to helping other countires when we have homeless, hungry and just plain ole people struggling here. Our soilders need to come home and Bush needs to clean up home before fighting for somewhere else. Fight Here Bush…Fight for an end to homelessness, unemployment and poverty.
By Heather
January 13, 2006 10:01 AM | Link to this
Mass media breeds ignorance, isn’t that the saying.. The media took this and ran without thinking it through. Sure it is an humanitarian effort, but they have now endangered the entire family and this story is taking precedence over the violence that persists in the region. The media should fund for the family to be brought to the states, then the family can be put in a substandard house in this country and live on welfare with medicaid and see how our politicians let the poor of this country live.
By Julia
January 13, 2006 11:57 AM | Link to this
While I applaud the effort to save this baby’s life, my very first thought was her aftercare for the rest of her life. I know about this first-hand. My daughter was born with spina bifida. I was 20 years old at the time and had no clue what this was or anything about it. My baby girl did well, but she was in a wheelchair and had some kidney problems, and was in and out of the hospital over the years. She was a tough little girl and she was lucky enough to have the medical care and the family caregivers around her all the time. She was able to go the public school and excelled in her school work. Unfortunately, she passed away when she was 16 due to unforeseen kidney complications. These special children can grow and thrive in the right environment, and I really am concerned that if Baby Noor goes back to her home, that she will not be so lucky. Hopefully there is a solution for everyone involved with this. I do agree that there are children and families right here in the US that need help with these types of medical conditions and I’m not saying that trying the save this baby was the wrong thing to do. I just wish that more information could have been given to the people involved with this, especially about the special care needs as her life progresses, before it became a media event.
By Debbie
January 14, 2006 06:40 PM | Link to this
My prayers go out to this family. But it seems to me that this is a waste of time to try and save a baby that you know might be killed once returned to her hometown. Why not use this time to try and help our own people her in america that can’t afford some life saving operations. I don’t agree with some people talking about bringing the whole family here.Just think what this country would be like if we start bringing everybody here to the USA. LETS CONCENTRATE ON BRINGING OUR SOLDIERS HOME SAFE!!!!!
By Dr. K
January 15, 2006 10:23 AM | Link to this
In the first place, WE did not bring her over here. It was a small group from the 48th Brigade and their families who rescued her. Everyone involved was painfully aware of the possible ramifications all along. They are just part of the problem to be solved. To relieve the Iraqi people from the fear of political retribution is why we are over there. If compassion is placed on your heart, you are being called to do something about it. And how could you not have compassion when you look at Baby Noor?