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Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Baby Noor returns home to Iraq
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Iraqi baby who was rescued by Georgia soldiers and then melted hearts around the world returned home from Atlanta on Wednesday.
Baby Noor, discovered by soldiers of the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team and brought here for life-saving medical care, was delivered to her home in Abu Ghraib by the U.S. Army.
Noor spent six months in Atlanta with two host families while undergoing surgery and follow-up medical treatment.
U.S. military officials took Noor’s grandmother, Soad, to meet the baby in Kuwait and flew them both back to the Baghdad airport.
From there, Noor was escorted in pre-dawn darkness by soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division’s 2-22 Infantry Battalion in humvees back to eastern Abu Ghraib, the unit’s public affairs officer, 1st Lt. Kristofer Deniger said in a telephone interview from Baghdad.
Deniger said the family was happy to have the baby, now eight months old, back at home.
“It was pretty much a flawless trip,” he said.
Baby Noor was shuttled out of Iraq after soldiers of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment went into the family home on a routine search last December.
Soad asked the Gainesville-based Charlie Company infantrymen to help her grandchild, who was born with a severe form of spina bifida, a birth defect in which the spinal cord does not fully form. Noor had an enormous tumor-like growth on her tiny back.
The U.S. Army arranged for Noor, Soad and Noor’s father, Haider, to travel to Atlanta, where her stay was sponsored by Childspring International, a Christian non-profit that brings sick kids from other nations to Atlanta for treatment.
“This particular humanitarian effort started with a young medic who noticed a child in need and ended with the most powerful nation on the planet, and its citizens, showing compassion and concern and a desire to do the right thing for her,” Lt. Col Kevin Brown, commander of 2-22 Infantry, said in an e-mail Wednesday.
“I’m honored to have served with our brothers from the Georgia Army National Guard, who really got this thing moving,” Brown said. “Saving Baby Noor was as important to us as it was for us to kill and capture terrorists.”
Brown said he would like one day to return to Iraq — when the insurgency has subsided — to check on the progress of Noor.
He said the U.S. Army has conducted over 20 medical assistance missions in Abu Ghraib over the past year and provided pre-natal vitamins to over 1,000 expectant mothers.
“This effort probably helped prevent another few dozen Baby Noors with various birth defects,” he said in his e-mail.
Even as Noor was settling back at home, the Spina Bifida Association paid tribute to Charlie Company soldiers at a conference in downtown Atlanta. Sgt. Nicholas Jelks, a mechanic from Decatur who was the first to see Noor, accepted the Chair’s Excellence Award.
Jelks, who got a standing ovation from the crowd, said he felt honored to receive the award and was happy to learn that Baby Noor was reunited with her family.
“It’s good to know I made a big difference in someone’s life,” he said.
Chairman Douglas Sorocco said the soldiers were honored by the Spina Bifida Association for “reaching out to a child in need in war-torn Iraq” whose case help publicize the birth defect in which the spinal cord does not fully form.
Charlie Company has already received two other humanitarian awards for their efforts to help Noor.
Soad and Haider returned to Iraq in late March to attend to the family they left behind in Abu Ghraib. Noor was not determined well enough to travel then and stayed back with hosts Nancy and Edward Turner.
Nancy Turner boarded a commercial jet for Kuwait on Monday evening with Noor.
Doctors have predicted that Noor will have a chance at a fairly normal life though she may never gain the use of her legs and spend a lifetime in a wheelchair.
Childspring, working through an Iraqi businessman in Atlanta, has lined up a team of doctors in Baghdad who have agreed to see Noor annually. The organization also sent Noor home with a supply of shunts and catheters that might not be easily available in Iraq.
Doctors have said Noor will likely need to see a neurologist, urologist, pediatrician and an orthopedist on a regular basis. A shunt placed in her brain to help drain fluid buildups will likely have to be adjusted as she grows. “We tried to duplicate the medical team she had here,” said Christina Porter, USA director for Childspring. “I am overjoyed that Childspring has been able to what we could do to return Noor to her family.”
