I don’t know if y’all have heard about this - it’s making the local news because it’s a GA National Guard company.
I ran across it on a couple blogs earlier this week, but forgot to say anything. Basically, a company of Guardsmen, whilst patrolling a city looking for insurgents, came into a house with a sick child, who had what appeared to be a huge tumor on her back. Turns out she was born with Spina Bifida, and the doctors there said she wouldn’t last 45 days. Well, she’s about 3 months old now, and thanks to our servicemembers and some generous doctors, corporations, and aid groups, she’s coming to Atlanta to have corrective surgery, FOR FREE.
A friend of mine said they were showing her on the news (last night?) and the grandmother (grandma and papa are traveling with the little one) was rocking her, in her lap at the airport, and calling her “Georgia.”
Without the surgery, her days are numbered. With it, she has a chance at a functional life, although most likely in a wheelchair.
Oh - I remembered where I first read about her - at OpinionJournal’s Best of the Web, where they were wondering if this was what he meant when Senator Kerry said that US troops are terrorizing children in Iraq. James Taranto was referencing CNN, so maybe y’all *have* heard about it.
UPDATE: She arrived in Atlanta this evening, and her first surgery is scheduled for Jan 9.
Oh sweetheart….that just hurts the heck out of me to see that thing on you. Yeah those Aid Agencies are pretty good folks most the time. I did that work in Africa more than twice as long as I was a Marine. Nice feeling helping people instead of killing them. Just as scary too. Oh yeah….you Gaurdsman are my heros too. (smile and shake hands, share 12 packs’n stuff)
Comment by Reg — 20060101 @ 1827
Yes, I recall seeing a similar story several months ago, about an Afghani girl with a congenital heart defect.
I can think of no better way to “win the war for hearts and minds.” Not only does it show local people (if just a few) most profoundly the charity and goodness of the American people, but it also exposes them to what the could have, by joining the greater world.
Comment by Kevin Connors — 20060102 @ 0652