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Sergeant helps Iraqi girl walk again

  • Published
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --   What began as a typical deployment to Southwest Asia turned into the TDY of a lifetime for one McConnell NCO.

Tech. Sgt. Roxanne Dowell, 22nd Communications Squadron information manager, played a pivotal role in securing rehabilitative surgery for an injured Iraqi child while deployed to Tallil AB, Iraq, located near Nasiriyah.

Through her persistent efforts, she was able to find a surgeon who would remove a bullet from a young girls back. The bullet was causing partial paralysis from the waist down.

The girl, Diyar (pronounced De are) age 4, was shot three times by unknown assailants as her family was traveling in their car. Diyars brother was shot in the face, and her older sister was also slightly wounded. Her parents were uninjured in the attack.

South Korean surgeons operated on Diyar and were able to remove two of the bullets, but couldnt remove the third because it was lodged in her spinal column, leaving her partially paralyzed. Around this same time, half way through her tour, Sergeant Dowell wondered if there were any volunteer opportunities that she could take part in during the remainder of her deployment. One of her co-workers told her about an opportunity to volunteer at the Korean clinic.

The clinic, which was located on base, was operated by the South Koreans, who provided humanitarian care to the Iraqi people. Sergeant Dowell said that the clinic would send a bus into the local community, pick up anyone who needed medical care most of whom were children and bring them back to the clinic, then return them after treatment.

Sergeant Dowell vividly remembers the first time she saw Diyar. When I walked in the clinic, I was struck by what I saw young children badly injured, she said. I remembered walking to the room; I saw this 4-year-old lying in her bed with her back to me. Her grandmother was crying. I asked, through a translator, what happened. The answer was that she had been shot.

Sergeant Dowell visited Diyar and her family almost every day for two weeks getting to know the girl and her family, and vise-versa. One day, she went to the clinic for a normal visit and the translators met her at the entrance and said they were going to release Diyar.

Diyars grandmother was crying and through a translator saying please help, please see what you can do, said Sergeant Dowell. I told her grandmother that I would see what I could do, I would try. I was overcome and sad because it was probably the last time I was going to see her, she added. Sergeant Dowell drove away from the clinic, upset and in tears. But 10 minutes after she left the clinic, she said she heard a two-minute report on Armed Forces Network about a doctor named Dr. Eaman Algobory, an Iraqi physician who arranged for free airlift and medical care for injured Iraqi children. I thought I have to try to contact her, said Sergeant Dowell.

I made several phone calls, and I was finally able to track down the person who did the story. Sergeant Dowell said. Then, through a series of e-mails, I was able to get the information on how to contact Dr. Algobory. Once I got her number and called her, and during the course of our conversation, I got her e-mail address. I then sent her the pictures of Diyar, along with the x-ray and all the other medical information I could get my hands on. I asked if she thought there was anyone anywhere that could help this little girl. She replied she would see what she could do. A week later, Sergeant Dowell received an e-mail from an Army Dr. (Lt. Col.) Jeff Poffenbarger, a neurosurgeon with the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad.

In the e-mail, Dr. Poffenbarger said that if I could get Diyar to Baghdad, he would be glad to see her and he thought he could help her, she said.

On her last day in Iraq, Sergeant Dowell made her final trip the clinic. Diyar had already been released, but the translators at the clinic were relaying messages to and from the family to Sergeant Dowell.

She gave Diyars family some money, Dr Algoborys phone number, and tried to work out an agreeable place and time to meet Dr. Algobory. She also ensured that Dr. Poffenbarger knew when and where to expect Diyar so he could evaluate her. Doctor Algobory met the family and helped them through the check-in process at the 31st Combat Support Hospital.

The day I left Baghdad was a bittersweet day, because as I was leaving, I knew Diyar was on her way into Baghdad to see Dr Poffenbarger, said Sergeant Dowell.

Dr. Poffenbarger operated on Diyar July 6 and by July 8 she was able to stand at the edge of her bed. He said she was recovering very well and she would walk again.

When asked how she felt knowing that the little girl she saw laying in the hospital is now going to have a normal life again, Sergeant Dowell responded that she was so very grateful to those who helped.

I dont think I did anything special but did what anyone else would have done I said I would try and that is what I did, try, said Sergeant Dowell. As a mother of a four-year-old, I would like to think that someone would have tried to help my daughter, and that is all I was thinking I would want someone to help my daughter. Miraculously, so many people were willing to help.

Sergeant Dowell gives credit to the Korean doctors, Dr. Algobory, Dr. Poffenbarger and the translators, one of whom offered his car to personally transport Diyar and her family to Baghdad, as being the real heroes of this story. She said that everyone was so helpful through out the process and no one hesitated to do what they could.

Sergeant Dowell has received several e-mails from Dr. Poffenbarger about Diyars progress. Dr. Poffenbarger says that Diyar is recovering better than expected; she will make a full recovery and learn to walk again.