From Iraq to Iowa ... Five year old Iraqi boy has life-saving heart surgery
zwire.com
For Cindy Yerington, the decision to sponsor the visit of an Iraqi man and his 5-year-old son to Iowa so the boy could have life-saving heart surgery was easy.
It was the rest that turned out to be a series of challenging, but rewarding hurdles.
The story was told to Wellman and West Liberty Rotarians at a recent meeting in Riverside, where the Iraqi father and sons were the featured guests.
Yerington, a West Liberty resident, first heard of Subhi and Rebaz Shamsadeen through her son, Sergeant Corey Johnston, an Army Ranger medic now serving his second tour of duty in Iraq.
Johnston had been approached by an Iraqi soldier who talked about his young nephew, Rebaz, who had a heart defect and needed help.
The boy's older brother had already died of the same condition and, without help, so would Rebaz.
The road to Iowa
Together, Yerington and Johnston started researching into what it would take to get Rebaz to the United States, where he could receive medical care and, hopefully, surgery, to repair the condition.
"We started looking into it and thought it was going to be pretty difficult," said Yerington. "Every place I turned I was running into a wall."
Thanks to Yerington's persistence, the walls started to crumble and everything began to fall into place. A military colonel wrote Yerington a letter, saying it would be in the best interest of the United States and its military to help this boy get the medical attention he needed. Yerington's neighbor Kathy Schneider, a research coordinator in the adult cardiology department at University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City, took Rebaz's case to the doctors in her department, who agreed to either provide their services free or at a low rate. Sixty-three Rotary clubs of Iowa donated more than $18,000 and committed to paying Rebaz's bills for tests and hospitalization. And a Kurdish human-rights group agreed to pay for Rebaz and Subhi's travel expenses from Kurdistan to Jordan and round-trip from Jordan to Chicago.
On December 30, the impossible happened. Subhi and Rebaz Shamsadeen met the Yeringtons for the first time at Chicago's O'Hare Airport and began their trek to West Liberty, where they have been staying with the Yeringtons while Rebaz receives care at University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City.
A risky procedure
Even after the difficult process of getting Rebaz and his father to Iowa to see the doctors at University of Iowa Hospitals, there were no guarantees.
Rebaz was born with an aortopulmonary window, a hole in his heart that developed in uterine. If he had been born in the United States, the condition would have been repaired shortly after birth, Yerington said. Doctors in Iowa City were skeptical that they would be able to successfully repair the hole without risking Rebaz's life.
The doctors got their first look at Rebaz and his heart on January 3, when the boy checked into the hospital for a series of tests, a chest X-ray, an electrocardiogram and an ultrasound of his heart, which have become routine for the energetic boy.
Rebaz was back in the hospital on January 18 for a heart catheterization, at which time doctors decided to schedule the surgery for January 21, which, coincidentally, is a special religious holiday for Muslims, the culmination of the pilgrimage to Mecca.
"They didn't think he would survive the surgery," said Yerington. "I was so worried. I felt responsible because I'd brought them here."
But the surgery, which took three-and-a-half hours, was successful, and ended an hour and a half earlier than doctors expected. Since then, Rebaz has been doing everything ahead of schedule, including returning to the Yerington home after just one week of hospitalization when doctors estimated he would be there for 14 days.
"Before the Americans came to Kurdistan it would have been financially impossible to go anywhere to get help for Rebaz," said Subhi through an interpreter. "It was a miracle that this happened and it was only possible through Cindy."
Subhi's assessment of the success of the operation is shared by Yerington.
"It was a miracle," said Yerington of the surgery and Rebaz's recovery. "He's a very active boy. He's been playing around the house with his oxygen tank and just has so much energy."
At his checkup on February 28, Rebaz was removed from oxygen, which he'd been on since the surgery, and was taken off all medication except baby aspirin. Doctors anticipate he will be discharged from their care in two weeks, able to return home with Subhi to be reunited with his mother and 9-year-old sister.
Help from the community
With monetary support coming from the Rotary, West Liberty's own Rotary Club has helped in additional ways. President Ken Donnelly has spent quite a bit of time with Subhi and Rebaz, taking them to a mosque and the IMAX theater in Cedar Rapids for a showing of "The Polar Express."
A guest of the Rotarians, the Shamsadeens also attended a banquet in Coralville in honor of the Rotary's 100th anniversary. The guests of honor, Subhi and Rebaz, sat at a front table with UI President David Skorton, Iowa City Mayor Ernie Lehman, Coralville Mayor Jim Fossett and Iowa State Bank and Trust President Charlie Funk.
"President Skorton made a paper airplane out of the program and gave it to Rebaz," said Donnelly. "I tried explained to them who (Skorton) is by telling them he is president of the hospital. They understood that."
Donnelly said he's grateful for the time he's been able to spend with Subhi and Rebaz.
"It's been fun. I will miss him when he's gone," Donnelly said of Rebaz. "We literally saved a life."
Returning home
Yerington's attention has now turned to how Subhi and Rebaz will get back to their home in Iraq.
When they made their trip to Iowa in December, the Shamsadeens were helped by a Kurdish human-rights group, which provided transportation from their home in Iraq to Jordan, where they stayed for a week until they could secure visas for travel to the United States. The way back may not be as easy.
"I'm worried about how they will get from Jordan to home. Kurdish Human Rights has pretty much dropped off the face of the earth," said Yerington.
Yerington said she is determined to make sure Subhi and Rebaz have a safe way back. However, when it comes to the big picture, Yerington said she's not that worried about this bump in the road.
"This is such a small thing," she said of the problem of getting the Shamsadeens from Jordan to their home in Iraq. "The hurdles until now were a lot higher."
Yerington said she doesn't know how she'll stay in contact with the Shamsadeens once they return home.
"There's no post office, no computer. They have nothing," said Yerington. "Corey tells me we'll go back and visit in five years, but it's too unsafe now."
Yerington said she knows she'll miss the father and son her family has come to know so well.
"I worry about when they leave. I'll have empty-nest syndrome," she said. "I love that child like he was my own grandson."
a lasting effect
At first, communication between the Shamsadeens and the Yeringtons was difficult, as the Yeringtons didn't speak Kurdish or Farsi/Persian, which Subhi learned during the 21 years he spent in a Kurdish refugee camp in Iran, and the Shamsadeens didn't speak English.
Thanks to 10 pages of Kurdish words supplied by the U.S. military, a Farsi/Persian-English dictionary purchased online, a lot of gesturing and an occasional visit from an interpreter, the families are finding communication a little easier. Yerington is already considering learning Farsi after the Shamsadeens leave Iowa.
One thing about the whole experience is for sure: The Yeringtons and everyone else who has met and become acquainted with Subhi and Rebaz Shamsadeen will not soon forget them.
"This experience really puts a face on the war," said Yerington. "I wish more people could meet them."
Subhi said the thing he has enjoyed most about Iowa and his trip to the United States is the people and how friendly they have been to him and to Rebaz.
The lasting effects of the Shamsadeens' stay in Iowa are yet to be seen, but already Yerington said she is trying to think of ways she can help people like Rebaz and Subhi. Never one to sit back and watch, Yerington has already established herself as a strong community volunteer through her work helping to start Treats for Troops and raising money so Angela Espinoza, a West Liberty woman dying of cancer, could take her children to Disney World.
Yerington said she never questioned her decision to help bring Rebaz to America.
"I don't think what I did is that extraordinary. I thought we were just doing something natural. When your child comes to you asking you to help someone, you do it," she said. "My daily activities are helping someone who truly needs me. There's this sense of accomplishment, sense that I'm doing something good."
Subhi said his family will always be grateful to Johnston and the Yerington family for what they did for Rebaz.
"I will never forget Iowa," he said through an interpreter. "I hope to have at least more child, a daughter, and name her Cindy." |
