An Iraqi infant with the most severe form of birth defect began her journey Friday to the United States, where she will receive treatment at the urging of U.S. soldiers who discovered her during a raid three weeks ago in Abu Ghraib, the poverty stricken town west of Baghdad that is home to the notorious prison.
Noor al-Zahra, 3 months old, and her family took off in a military transport plane from the Baghdad airport on a trip that was to bring them to Atlanta today.
The soldiers noticed paralysis in her legs and what appeared to be a tumor on her back. It was learned that "Baby Noor", or "Baby Nora" to the Americans, has spina bifida, a birth defect in which the backbone and spinal cord do not close before birth. The 'tumor' on the baby's back was actually a fluid-filled sac containing the spinal cord membranes that are supposed to cover the spinal cord.
"It is not yet clear how much physicians will be able to do to help her after she gets to Atlanta", said Dr. Roger Hudgins, the pediactric neurosurgeon who agreed to take the case.
-----i read this in the newspaper today at work. her doctors in Iraq said her chances of survival are slim. But i thought it was cool of U.S. troops to take the effort.
Noor al-Zahra, 3 months old, and her family took off in a military transport plane from the Baghdad airport on a trip that was to bring them to Atlanta today.
The soldiers noticed paralysis in her legs and what appeared to be a tumor on her back. It was learned that "Baby Noor", or "Baby Nora" to the Americans, has spina bifida, a birth defect in which the backbone and spinal cord do not close before birth. The 'tumor' on the baby's back was actually a fluid-filled sac containing the spinal cord membranes that are supposed to cover the spinal cord.
"It is not yet clear how much physicians will be able to do to help her after she gets to Atlanta", said Dr. Roger Hudgins, the pediactric neurosurgeon who agreed to take the case.
-----i read this in the newspaper today at work. her doctors in Iraq said her chances of survival are slim. But i thought it was cool of U.S. troops to take the effort.
