Positivity: Finally, a new face for young Hamoody
From Seattle (don’t miss the slideshow at the link; HT Michelle Malkin):
Sunday, May 20, 2007
On the day Muhammed “Hamoody” Hussein was to get his new face, he begged for a fast ride in a wheelchair, shot a toy cannon down the hall and professed his adoration for the hospital receptionist.
“I love you!” the blind Iraqi boy told hospital admissions clerk Paula Royal. “Are you sure?” she asked. “What shall I call you?”
“Bob.”
Eight hours of surgery and many unexpected difficulties later, Hamoody is now in critical condition in the intensive-care unit, having taken the first step toward a new life on Friday.
What was destroyed by a gunshot in May 2005 when his family, who are Shiites, were ambushed by Sunni insurgents, was partially restored by the skilled hands of Drs. Joseph Gruss and Craig Birgfeld — who donated their time — at Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center.
It was a yearlong wait for the big day to arrive.
Last May, Hamoody was brought from Iraq to the Seattle area by the Everett chapter of the national nonprofit Healing the Children, which matches children in need of medical care unavailable where they live with doctors and hospitals willing to donate it. He was placed in the Snohomish home of Randy Smith and Julie Robinett Smith, and doctors at Swedish Medical Center planned to donate their services. But once doctors began to examine him last summer, they found that not only could they not restore his sight as they initially had hoped, but that Hamoody had severe sleep apnea and badly damaged sinuses from having been shot in the face during the attack — an attack that killed his uncle and critically wounded his mother.
The shooting left him blind, shattered an eye socket and his nose and displaced much of the soft tissue, leaving the boy disfigured. Another uncle drove Hamoody to Iran for surgery, but what was done there only complicated things, local doctors say.
The past year has been full of tests as doctors tried to determine the full extent of Hamoody’s injuries. Eventually, Gruss, an expert in repairing facial gunshot wounds, took over the case, but even he was surprised on Friday at the extent of the damage he found once the surgery began.
Go here for the rest of the story.
