A five-year-old Iraqi girl is in Rochester, undergoing surgeries that could give her the gift of eyesight.

Noor Al-Ithawi was born blind. The girl lives near Bagdad, Iraq.

Members of the U.S. military there lobbied to bring the girl here, to undergo a rare artificial corneal transplant.

Noor’s family is credited with helping U.S. forces there.

On Monday, the girl underwent the first of two surgeries at the University of Rochester’s Eye Institute.

Doctors don’t know just yet how effective the procedures will be, but they’re optimistic.

“We can fix them,” said Dr. James Aquavella, the surgeon who performed the operation. “The question is how much damage there was to them that might interfere with the retina’s ability to accept these images.”

Noor’s mother made the trip, leaving behind her husband and the couple’s other two children.

“She doesn’t know what blindness is, eyesight is,” said Shaymaa Al-Ithawi through a translator.

The second surgery, to repair the girl’s iris, is scheduled for Tuesday.

Noor and her mother are due to fly back to Iraq this weekend.

R News
by Seth Voorhees
photo by Todd Krupa