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Friday, January 13, 2006
Baby Noor out of hospital for now
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Doctors at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta discharged 3-month-old Noor al-Zahra of Iraq on Friday.
Plans to insert a shunt to drain fluid from Noor’s brain were scrapped after exams found no accumulation of fluid. That may mean Noor will need less intense follow-up care in Iraq, but it’s still possible that she’ll need a shunt, hospital officials said.
On Monday, surgeons removed a mass of skin from Noor’s back and repaired part of her spinal cord. She suffers from spina bifida, a birth defect.
Following the release, Baby Noor went to the home of a metro Atlanta family with her father and grandmother, who accompanied her from Iraq.
The host family has been trained to monitor Noor, and she will have regular checkups, said Helen Shepard of Childspring International, a nonprofit that arranges treatment in the United States for sick children from abroad.
Noor probably will remain in metro Atlanta for at least two months, with a second surgery to reposition her bladder. Doctors say she will be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life and is likely to have limited control of her bladder and bowels.
On Sunday, members of Shepherd of the Hills United Methodist Church plan to present a $25,000 check to Childspring a donation that is earmarked for Noor.
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