U.S. teens help Iraqi boy in need of surgery

Only a month ago in Iraq, Latifa Hussein was desperately trying to help her 10-month-old son, Karam, who needed open-heart surgery. Today, in New Hyde Park, N.Y., she checks on Karam every few minutes -- displaying the mixed emotions of a mother worried but relieved.

Her worries began in Baghdad earlier this year when doctors told her that her baby boy required surgery to repair a small hole in his heart. But her country was in the midst of the war's aftermath, and doctors and medical equipment were scarce.

Fortunately for the Hussein family, a group of teenagers from Great Neck North High School on Long Island were raising money to help save the lives of children like hers. The teens from Great Neck's Rotary Interact Club began a fund-raising campaign in September that led to a $5,000 donation to a chapter of Gift of Life Inc., a nonprofit organization that specializes in arranging cardiac surgery for children worldwide, said Allison Polland, 18, the Interact club's president. Doctors who diagnosed Karam knew of the Gift of Life program and passed Hussein's name through a liaison.

First meetings

Polland met Hussein and Karam for the first time Monday at The Ronald McDonald House in New Hyde Park, where the mother and son have been staying free for about three weeks. Karam's surgery at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx last week went well, and he is expected to make a full recovery.

"I just smiled," Polland said. "It was incredible to see him healthy and to see that the money I had worked hard for in the club was able to help him."

'My dream'

Brooklyn-Queens-Nassau Gift of Life chapter helps about 250 children a year internationally. About 70 of those children receive operations in the United States while the rest go to hospitals abroad where the proper surgical and post-surgical care is available. Gift of Life has offices in 50 cities worldwide.

Hussein, who left a husband and two young children in Baghdad to take care of Karam here after the surgery, said Gift of Life took care of her. The organization worked with doctors in Aman, Jordan, to ensure her son was prepared to travel. Officials met her at the airport when she arrived last month and arranged for her stay at the Ronald McDonald House.

"This was my dream," Hussein said. "I knew it would be good to come here."