Palestinian Girl Benefits From Free Surgery
A small victim of the Middle East conflict
A small victim of the Middle East conflict entered Cary Canoun's operating room earlier this month.
The child was 3-year-old Israa El Batsh, who was playing near her Gaza City home with relatives on March 6 when shrapnel from a surprise Israeli missile flew into her eye and face.
Two of her cousins were among those who died in the attack. Another 9-year-old cousin is now in a wheelchair. Her brother was badly wounded, and after four surgeries he now limps and has only limited use of one of his arms, said Israa's mother, Dalal Elbatsh, using a translator at Dr. Canoun's Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek office. Israa, the youngest of Dalal's six children, lost her right eye.
In June, Dalal and Israa traveled to the Bay Area for additional care, thanks to the Palestine Children's Relief, an Ohio-based humanitarian relief organization that provides free medical treatment for sick and injured Middle Eastern children. The organization sends doctors abroad and also flies selected children who need specialized attention to the United States. Several of those children, including Israa, are in the United States now, while 1,000 remain on a wait list, said Dina Aburous, the Dalal's translator and volunteer with the organization.
Israa received a prosthetic eye from a San Jose oculist. Since the incident, the girl had complained of pain – she had a two-centimeter shrapnel wedged in her right maxillary sinus and a smaller piece in her left cheek. So with the help of a Kaiser Permanente team, Dr. Canoun MD, removed them both on July 3. The surgery was pro bono.
Dr. Canoun, who has worked for Kaiser Permanente since September, said he was impressed that the surgery was relatively easy to arrange.
"Kaiser is a large organization," he said. "It took a lot of people to make this happen."
Dalal and Israa El Batsh and Dr. Canoun at his Walnut Creek office last week.
Dr. Canoun was first contacted by the Palestine Children's Relief Fund to evaluate Israa because he has volunteered with the organization before. Last year, he traveled to the West Bank town of Jenin to operate on 42 children, fixing cleft lips, palates, and burns.
"They are like honey," Dalal said of the nurses "They have been so helpful and so nice."
"I used to go to Guatemala to do surgeries, but there are so many groups in Central America, they are almost competing with each other. I wanted to go where I was needed more," Dr. Canoun said. He also wanted to help in the Arabic world because his father is from Lebanon.
The pony-tailed Israa, who still has a few shrapnel wounds on her face, visited Dr. Canoun for her final visit last week. He said she was healing nicely and would barely have a scar. Holding a black and white stuffed animal and clinging to her mom in Dr. Canoun's office, the girl had been asking what happened to her eye. She stopped asking after she received her new eye, Dalal said.
Dalal also noticed that Israa is starting to return to her normal playful self. Like her cousins and siblings, Israa has been afraid to go outside since the deadly explosion that claimed half her sight.
Through her translator, Dalal said she and her daughter were treated well at Kaiser Permanente.
Dalal said the nurses and other health care workers would go out of their way to make them feel comfortable. In particular, she mentioned Esperanza Alfaro, RN, and Linda Laney, RN, who got her milk chocolate when the ward ran out. After Israa left her charge, nurse Sharifa Awadallah continued to check in on them, gave Israa presents, and brought her family in for a visit. She is also Palestinian.
"I hope others can come here and get the medical attention they need," Dalal said. "I hope other mothers don't have to go through what I went through."