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Photo by Gregory Rec/Staff PhotographerABOUT THIS SERIES
IN OCTOBER 2006, an Iraqi child, Noora Afif Abdulhameed, was seriously injured when an American sniper's bullet struck her in the head. Through the help of the nonprofit No More Victims, she and her father arrived in Portland in July so doctors can repair the damage to Noora's skull. The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram is following their progress. This is the third installment.
BENEFIT DINNER
WHAT: Dinner featuring Middle Eastern food to help pay for Noora's trip to Portland, co-sponsored by the New School. Noora and her father, Afif Abdulhameed Otaiwi, will attend the dinner.
WHEN: 6 p.m. Oct. 10
WHERE: First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, 114 Main St., Kennebunk
TICKETS: $8 for adults and $3 for children under 12. Tickets will be available at the door.
NOORA'S MEDICAL CARE is being donated by her doctors and Maine Medical Center.
HOUSING for Noora and her father has been donated by the Ronald McDonald House for as long as they need it.
TRAVEL, EXPENSES are being donated by No More Victims, a nonprofit group. The group also pays a monthly stipend to Noora's family in Iraq to help them survive while Noora and her father are gone.
PROCEEDS from the Oct. 10 dinner will go to No More Victims to help pay for these expenses.
DONATIONS may also be made directly to No More Victims at: the International Humanities Center, P.O. Box 923, Malibu, CA 90625. Write "Portland Maine Noora" in the memo line.
FOR MORE INFORMATION about the dinner, contact Cynthia Howard at architect@gwi.net or Susi Eggenberger at seggenberger@verizon.net.
Noora Afif Abdulhameed sits quietly next to her papa in a waiting room at Maine Medical Center, waiting to be called in for her first pre-operative test.
She'd slept in until 7 on this Tuesday morning in July, so breakfast was just a little milk from the hospital cafeteria. Now she's waiting for some cream applied to the backs of her hands to numb her skin so that a routine IV may be inserted.
The 6-year-old was scheduled for a CT scan at 8:30 a.m. to give doctors a better picture of damage to her skull, which was partially shattered by an American sniper's bullet on Oct. 23, 2006, in her hometown of Heet, Iraq.
Noora seems cheerful – she had spoken to other members of her family in Iraq on the phone the night before – but a bit nervous.
"It's stirring up old memories for her, I think, but Afif convinced her it's not an operation," says Susi Eggenberger. The Arundel resident and her husband helped bring Noora and her father, Afif Abdulhameed Otaiwi, to Portland for surgery to repair Noora's head, and are guiding them through their stay.
Otaiwi said his daughter once endured 165 needle sticks for a single operation in her home country. It was "very, very painful."
"She is scared when she remembers," says Otaiwi, a 42-year-old history teacher. "I told her (the CT scan will be) just a picture."
As they wait, Noora practices some of her new English words. She points to the pattern on her dress and says, "flower." She counts to 10. She says, "How are you?" to a visitor and "I love you" to Eggenberger, her patty-cake partner.
When they are called in to radiology, Otaiwi lifts his daughter onto a stretcher, removes her sandals and covers her with a white blanket. Diane Gray, a registered nurse, wipes the numbing cream from Noora's hands, which entails removing a clear bandage.
"It's going to pull a little bit," she tells Noora. "There we go. You have a pretty dress on. Pretty flowers."
Next come tourniquets on both arms so Gray can find a vein. Noora begins to whimper. Michel Ohayon, another nurse, holds her left arm while Gray tries to insert the IV.
Soft crying turns to sobs. Otaiwi, speaking softly to her in Arabic, tries to comfort his daughter by kissing her on her forehead, wiping her tears and rubbing her chin with his finger. Eggenberger stands at the end of the stretcher, rubbing Noora's feet through the blanket.
No luck on the left side. The nurses give Noora a small stuffed otter and tell her to squeeze it with her right hand. Again, no usable vein.
"It's heartbreaking," Ohayon says. "They've done so many (IVs) in her home country that there's scar tissue. You put it in, and there's nothing to thread it through. And then on top of it, she has very small veins."
The staff decides to give it one more try and calls in Dr. Richard Evans, a pediatric anesthesiologist, and Laura Mamchur, a nurse anesthetist.
When they arrive, Gray tells Mamchur, "I think there's one spot left on the left hand that might be good for you."
Otaiwi explains to Mamchur that Noora is afraid of needles. Mamchur tells her, "I'm just going to put a rubber band around your arm, and we're just going to look."
An unusually mature look of determination comes across Noora's face. She suddenly thrusts both her arms out in front of her, veins up, offering them to the strangers.
"Oh, you're so brave," Mamchur murmurs. "You're so brave."
Both Evans and Mamchur start searching for a vein. Noora knows what's coming, and begins to sob again.
"It's OK, it's OK," Mamchur says.
After one more search, this time on her feet, Evans recommends stopping.
"It's just not going to happen," he tells Otaiwi, noting it's "not worth the upset" to Noora to continue.
"Tomorrow we'll give her a mask, she'll go to sleep," he says. "It will be better for her, OK?"
Evans looks over at Noora.
"You win...
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