WASHINGTON, Jan 1: An Iraqi baby girl with a birth defect arrived in the United States on Saturday to undergo potentially life-saving surgery after her case was taken up by concerned US soldiers. The story of ‘Baby Noor’, as she is called in the US media, touched soldiers who raided her home last month during a routine search mission in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad.

The baby’s grandmother, Soad, showed the three-month old girl’s spinal cord defect to the soldiers of the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team, who decided to help save her.

Soad and Noor al Zahra’s father, Haider, flew to Atlanta with the baby, who will be treated for free at the Georgia town.

“We are very excited about this trip,” Soad was quoted as saying in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We are thankful to the people of Georgia.”

The hospital’s top neurosurgeon was optimistic about Noor’s chances of survival.

“Obviously good works happen everyday in Iraq and good works happen with the soldiers,” said Dr Roger Hudgins, the hospital’s chief of neurosurgery.

“We hear all of the negative (so) it’s about time I think that we have the opportunity to hear some of the good, and I appreciate my small role in this,” Mr Hudgins told reporters.

Noor suffers from spina bifida, a birth defect in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close before birth, causing the spinal cord to protrude form the baby’s back.

The defect can lead to brain disorders or paralysis of the legs.

Hudgins said Noor would first be evaluated to make sure she can survive surgery, which could take place in the next few days.

“I think that the chances for her survival, hopefully, are good,” he said.

Skin appears to have grown over the girl’s protruding spinal cord, posing a challenge for the surgery, he said. The skin, however, has likely kept her alive by protecting her from germs and keeping spinal fluid from leaking, he added.

“It’s a good thing for her, but it presents a technical challenge for us,” Hudgins said.—AFP