Syrian Refugee Baby Gets Life-saving Surgery, Others Wait

 

Sara al-Matoura watched her daughter through a window as her daughter’s chest moved up and down under a tangle¹ of medical wires.

The mother from the Syrian city of Homs had not eaten for a day. She was up all night by her one-year-old daughter’s side at a hospital in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

Al-Matoura had fled the Syrian war for Jordan in 2012. She was only four months pregnant² when she found out the baby had a congenital heart condition known as tricuspid atresia. Ninety percent of children with the condition would die before the age of ten.

Doctors advised her to end the pregnancy³ but Al-Matoura refused. “She is my gift from God,” she said. She named her daughter Eman. It means “faith” in Arabic.

Eman recently received a life-saving open heart surgery. The surgery was one of eight heart operations performed by surgeons from the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu Hospital.

The Italian surgeons performed the operations for free. But U.N. officials say many refugees⁵ with medical problems do not get treatment because of financial difficulties.

The more the treatment costs, the more likely their requests will be denied. Even services such as childbirth have become too costly⁶.

Some 5.5 million Syrians have fled their homeland since 2011. Jordan now has more than 650,000 Syrians registered with the U.N. refugee⁴ agency.

Jordanian officials say the number of Syrians in the country is actually two times higher. Additionally, they do not have enough money to take care of their own citizens.

The situation is getting worse as Europe and the U.S. are closing the borders to refugees and there are no signs of peace in Syria.

While Eman was in the operating room, another Syrian mother tried to keep her 12-year-old son Tamer from moving.

Tamer also has a congenital heart condition. When he moves too much, he loses his breath and turns blue.

Dr. Iyad al-Ammouri is a children’s heart surgeon at the University of Jordan Hospital. He said children with Tamer’s condition should receive an operation at age five or six.

But Tamer’s surgery will cost up to $28,000, far more money than his mother has. Tamer’s mother supports him alone as his father is still trapped in Syria.

Jordan used to help pay for Syrian refugees' medical care. But that was stopped in February. Now, a special committee of doctors reviews hundreds of cases each month and decides which one to help.

Late-stage cancer treatment, for example, is usually denied. Costly surgeries are also delayed or denied.

“Of course people come back month after month,” said Dr. Adam Musa, a U.N. public health officer who sits on the committee.

He said people would appeal again and again because the need is urgent. “It’s painful,” he added.

In January, 60 out of 143 refugee appeals for emergency help were approved. The United Nations gave them about $2,000 each. There wasn’t enough money for the rest, Musa said.

Across the area, the decreased support and the lack of aid have left millions of refugees on the edge of survival⁷, even pushing some to return to Syria.

The U.N. refugee agency spent $51 million in Lebanon last year. Yet it could not cover most life-saving surgeries.

“There are very few NGOs that are able to provide support for some of these cases and we know that people have taken difficult decisions to return to Syria for care,” said Dr. Michael Woodman, a senior public health officer with the UN.

After Eman’s surgery, doctors told her parents she would likely need another, more difficult surgery in two to five years.

“I don’t know where we will get the money then,” al-Matoura said. “But thank God for healing her today.”

I'm Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

chest - n. the front part of the body between the neck and the stomach

tangle - n. a twisted knot of hair, thread or wires

congenital - adj. existing since birth

heart – n. the organ in your chest that pumps blood through your veins⁸ and arteries⁹

surgery - n. medical treatment in which a doctor cuts into someone's body in order to repair or remove damaged or diseased parts

NGO - n. a non-governmental organization, such as a charity

1 tangle   

n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱

参考例句：

• I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。
• If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你，我就不跟他们争吵。

2 pregnant   

adj.怀孕的，怀胎的

参考例句：

• She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
• She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。

3 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

4 refugee   

n.难民，流亡者

参考例句：

• The refugee was condemned to a life of wandering.这个难民注定要过流浪的生活。
• The refugee is suffering for want of food and medical supplies.难民苦于缺少食物和医药用品。

5 refugees   

n.避难者，难民( refugee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The UN has begun making airdrops of food to refugees. 联合国已开始向难民空投食物。
• They claimed they were political refugees and not economic migrants. 他们宣称自己是政治难民，不是经济移民。

6 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

7 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。

8 veins   

n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理

参考例句：

• The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的，感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 arteries   

n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道

参考例句：

• Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This is the place where the three main arteries of West London traffic met. 这就是伦敦西部三条主要交通干线的交汇处。 来自《简明英汉词典》