Iraqi Infant Who Got Operation in Israel Dies

A month-old Iraqi girl who was ferried to Israel for emergency heart surgery died Wednesday, more than three weeks after her arrival captured public attention here.

Her doctor said Bayan Jabbar succumbed to lingering complications stemming from the Nov. 26 operation, which was sponsored by an Israeli-based group that arranges surgeries for babies with heart conditions.

Although doctors succeeded in repairing reversed arteries, the girl developed bleeding in her lungs that weakened her system until multiple organs failed, said Sion Houri, head of the intensive-care unit of Wolfson Medical Center near Tel Aviv and a co-founder of the Save a Child’s Heart group that paid for her operation.

“Children are very fragile. It was a major surgery,” Houri said Wednesday.

Simon Fisher, executive director of Save a Child’s Heart, said he still hoped to help other Iraqis.

“I’d like to think this is not going to hamper our future program with Iraqi children because there are so many children out there in need of help,” he said.

The group has helped treat hundreds of children from around the world for life-threatening heart conditions, but Bayan’s case stood out for its geopolitical aspects: While Saddam Hussein was in power, officials said, it would have been unthinkable for an Iraqi child to get such medical treatment in Israel, which the former Iraqi ruler considered a bitter foe.

A group of Christian volunteers came upon the newborn last month at a clinic in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit as they were drawing up a list of Iraqi children in need of heart operations.

Bayan’s condition was first diagnosed by a U.S. Army physician.

The volunteers said Iraqi doctors lacked the experience and equipment to perform the complicated procedure required to correct the life-threatening artery problem.

One of the volunteers, American Jonathan Miles, contacted Save a Child’s Heart, whose doctors soon were counseling Iraqi physicians by telephone on short-term treatment. Then Bayan was escorted to Israel, along with her father, Jasem Jabbar, and her mother, Iman Karim.

Houri said doctors continually battled against the complications. At times, Bayan showed signs of progress, only to falter again.

“We sure tried,” he said.

Philip Berg, office manager of the Jerusalem-based Christian group that came upon Bayan, said he saw the parents late Wednesday as they prepared for the return to Iraq, bearing the baby’s body.

They did not look well, he said.

“It’s been a grueling time,” Berg said.