In February 2017 a 10 year old girl suffered burns to 70% of her body during bombing of her family home in Mosul. Her fingers on her left hand had completed fused and she has no use of her right hand.
By the time we met Reem, in May, in the hospital in Erbil, she was severely malnourished and had not had any surgery for her horrific burns. To support Reem, one of the ADRA nurse volunteers (in the red top in feature photo) lived in Reem’s hospital room to provide care for her. We purchased special nutritional liquids to help build her up for a possible flight overseas for treatment.
An Australian nurse who was in our team house managed to encourage ‘Aljazeera news’ to come to the hospital and film Reem thereby highlighting her case in the Iraqi media.
I met with the hospital administrator and recommended they give the necessary permissions for her to be evacuated to Italy for treatment. She was not expected to survive a flight to a hospital in US.
The photo below shows Reem ready to board a domestic flight to Italy. Her father and the ADRA nurse accompanied Reem.
These recent photos show Reem’s remarkable progress in the hospital in Italy.
Reem has put on weight, her hair has grown and she has had a number of surgeries and receiving all the rehabilitation therapy she requires.
She is loved by so many people and is thriving – listening to music, walking and learning Italian. Her future is filled with hope and love