Israeli Doctors Operate on Iraqi Baby

Israeli doctors operated on an Iraqi baby girl for 10 hours Wednesday, trying to correct a potentially fatal heart defect.

Bayan Jassem was born just over a week ago near Kirkuk in northern Iraq with the arteries to her heart reversed. An American military doctor with the occupation forces discovered the infant’s problem and matched her parents up with the Israeli organization “Save a Child’s Heart.”

Last Friday, Jassem and her parents began the trek from Baghdad by airplane to Amman and then by car to the border with Israel, which they crossed Tuesday.

Israeli doctors operated on the baby Wednesday at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, south of Tel Aviv. One of the foundation officials accompanying the family said the operation took about 10 hours and appeared to be successful, but the baby was experiencing some internal bleeding.

Doctors said the life-saving operation must be performed within the first two weeks after a baby is born.

Such open heart surgery to correct arterial flow has never been performed in Iraq, said Jonathan Miles, a doctor who works with Save a Child’s Heart and traveled with the Jassem family from Iraq.

The organization treats children from poor families who do not have the means for medical treatment to correct their heart defects. It has paid for the operations of more than 300 Palestinian and several Jordanian children during the past three years, and has flown teams of surgeons to Africa and Asia to treat children.