First surgery for Iraqi baby is successful
Atlanta ? The Iraqi infant known as Baby Noor successfully underwent surgery Monday, a process that put all of her spinal cord in its proper place inside her body, doctors said.
Three-month-old Noor al-Zahra, who was born with spina bifida, was “doing well” at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta after the first of at least three planned operations, said hospital spokesman Kevin McClelland.
Dr. Roger Hudgins, a pediatric neurosurgeon, said Noor likely will be paraplegic, “typical of a child born this way.” But Hudgins, who had said earlier that Noor was likely to die without medical treatment, said “it is my hope she will be developmentally and mentally normal.”
The infant was smiling and cooing after the operation, Hudgins said.