Mariya arrived in Israel yesterday along with her mother and a group of other Kurdish families. We welcome them all.
Mariya is an eight month old girl from Kirkuk in Iraq. She was diagnosed with coarctation of the aorta, a very severe form of a congenital heart defect, in which her major artery supplying oxygenated blood to all her body is significantly narrowed.
Mariya and her mother even traveled to Turkey for help. Finally, a local doctor and a visiting doctor to Kurdistan, performed a balloon angioplasty to help open this narrowing. Now she needs intervention again, as this artery is narrowed. She requires oxygen at home. Without this supplemental oxygen, her oxygen levels decrease significantly. She also has a nasogastric tube because she has difficulties with swallowing.
Due to her complexities, we have advocated for Mariya to be directly admitted to the hospital. Please pray for Mariya and her mother as they adjust to the hospital.