A life was saved today, thank God, and the medical bridge between Israel and Iraq renewed as a two-year-old Iraqi girl named Kawther underwent open-heart surgery near Tel Aviv.
Earlier this year Shevet Achim volunteers visited Iraq to see the father of Bayan, the first Iraqi child to come to Israel for surgery. He led us to several more children in need of help, including Kawther who was born with a combination of heart defects which would have soon taken her life without surgery.
Our volunteers Dirk and Amy in Amman, Jordan sent for Kawther last week after scheduling her surgery and arranging for her visa to Israel. When Kawther arrived over the weekend, they found: She is very small and frail—not even able to stand up and often in the fetal position. She has little energy to walk or sometimes even eat. The night she arrived, her eyes rolled back briefly and she almost fainted in her high-chair. She was running a constant fever—sweating even while sleeping. Her father Salam became very worried.
Sunday they brought Kawther and father to the Jordan Valley crossing into Israel: Nearly every person in the border office was amazed to see an Iraqi child and father waiting to enter the country, and that meant everyone wanted to handle and read his passport, which is an official, new Iraqi passport.
There was a six-hour wait before they were allowed to enter Israel, where Brian from our Jerusalem office was waiting to drive them to the airport. Arriving at the hospital at 9 pm, they found the chief cardiologist Dr. Tamir waiting to receive Kawther and perform a brief echocardiogram: For the first time that day, Kawther was crying and fearfully shaking. Not only was she confirmed as operable, but that the surgery would need to be immediate.
Kawther came out of surgery at 3 pm Wednesday, and is in the ICU where Phil, Martha, and Amy visited her this evening.
The surgery was successful and doctors hope to wean her from the ventilator
already on Thursday. Please be in prayer for baby Kawther, the surgeons
and the staff. Also for Salam, her loving father, who is a humble man
and very thankful to be here to receive this care for his child. Although
he has a long journey ahead of him, he is learning how to care for his
daughter with the help of the mothers of the other Palestinian children
at the hospital. Salam recognizes our desire to help his family in the
name and love of Jesus. This makes our relationship with him genuine.
With thanksgiving,
Jonathan Miles
Coordinator
Shevet Achim
“Behold how good and how pleasant for brothers to dwell together
in unity” (Psalm 133:1)
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