![]() It was difficult to retain contact with them. After years of punishing international sanctions under Hussein's rule and then war, children like Noor were an afterthought.įive more years have passed. I wondered what would happen as she grew older in a harsh place like Iraq where, even before the war, care for children with disabilities was nominal at best. She slithered along the grass like a snake, unable to stand or walk. I went with them to see a doctor in what was then known as Baghdad's Green Zone. I caught up with Noor and her family in 2007, almost a year after her return. There, her family would pay a price for accepting American help. In a nation of bloodshed and pervasive fear, even the noblest of deeds cannot be assured a happy ending.Īfter six months of treatment in a children's hospital in Atlanta and care in the homes of two suburban families, Noor returned to Iraq. What would happen to a child with a complicated medical condition who might need more surgery in the future? A child without regular bladder function? A girl who could not walk? The soldiers, he told me, felt compelled to do the right thing.īut there was little if any discussion about what would become of Noor after her stay in the United States. Jeff Morgan, then an Army National Guard lieutenant, spearheaded the effort to fly Noor out of Iraq. Her name means "light" in Arabic - she was a flicker of brightness in the midst of war's gloom. Her smile enthralled everyone who saw her on television screens and newspaper pages. She became known to the world as Baby Noor. She was discovered by soldiers patrolling impoverished Abu Ghraib - the town notorious for its high-security prison - and shuttled to America for life-saving surgery. She was not even 3 months old yet when I first saw her, suffering from a severe spinal cord birth defect that was certain to kill her. The girl, Noor al-Zahra Haider, was the beneficiary of one of those acts. ![]() Doctors in Iraq said she was certain to die. Noor al-Zahra Haider was born with spina bifida, a birth defect in which the vertebrae do not form completely around the spinal cord. They found meaning in small acts of humanity. Many soldiers I met struggled to make sense of a perplexing mission. American men and women were dying every month, as were thousands of Iraqis. In years of lethal occupation, America found itself running a nation about which it knew little. invasion of Iraq, she is a broken girl in a broken land. Forgotten by America.Ī decade after the U.S. She was someone whom the Americans saved, just like they saved Iraq from Saddam Hussein. I'd always thought of her as a metaphor for the war. ![]() I am making this long journey now in search of a little girl. Covering the war, I had found a connection here to a people I did not know before. It is a strange feeling returning to this place where I spent so many months of my life. I strain to see out the window I know I am nearing the city when blackness over Anbar province gives way to the twinkle of low-voltage lighting. It has been five years since I was last in Iraq. Royal Jordanian Flight 8613 begins its descent into Baghdad on this late February night. The girl, like her homeland, is struggling. He knows there is little chance of a normal life for her here in war-ravaged Iraq. She suffers from urinary tract infections that result from abnormal bladder function. She has a shunt in her brain that could need replacement. She should have a CT scan done every three months, but her family cannot afford it. He says she should be seeing a neurologist and other specialists, not a family physician like him. He tries to voice optimism, tells her she is doing well. The doctor has been examining the girl for about five years. "In my head," the girl answers, lifting her hand to her forehead. Nasser leans over the girl on his patient bed. It's hard to tell this is a physician's office except for the posters advertising medications like Panadol and Novalac. A fan strains to ward off the smell of fresh paint. Saad Nasser welcomes the girl as she is wheeled into his office, a room not much larger than a walk-in closet. Her grandfather pulls her aluminum wheelchair out of a dust-blanketed taxi, places her in the seat. Baghdad (CNN) - The frail little girl wears a blue and gray striped dress with matching gladiator sandals and bag.
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