These interviews constitute the first in a two-part series with Cole Miller and the father of three-year-old Mustafa Ghazwan.
Ghazwan — Part 1.1: Ghazwan
Cole Miller — Part 1.2: Cole Miller
Doctors say that a three-year-old Iraqi boy is on the road to getting his hearing back after undergoing a successful surgery at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.On New Year’s Eve, young Mustafa Ghazwan was flown into San Francisco to receive treatment for his hearing loss after a U.S. missile struck near his home over a year ago.
In front of a large group of reporters, Ghazwan squirmed and sat uncomfortably as he wore a large bandage over his right ear where doctors had inserted a cochlear implant.
Now the next step is the boy’s rehabilitation which is expected to take several months to a year.
The last thing Mustafa Ghazwan’s small ears heard was the thunderous roar of the U.S. missile that slammed into his neighbor’s home in Iraq 18 months ago and left him deaf.
Since then, the world has been a very quiet place for the 3-year-old boy. He has not heard the sounds of the war that has torn apart his country. He has also not heard the voices of his parents, the music from the living room stereo and the sound of the singing toys he was just beginning to play with.
On Friday, in a San Francisco operating room half a world away from the war, he took his first step back from the silence. In a 90-minute operation that was both routine and anything but, surgeons implanted an electronic cochlea inside the boy’s right ear.
Ghazwan Al-Nadawi hasn’t heard his elder son speak in 19 months, since the day a missile attack in their native Baquba, Iraq, robbed the 3-year-old of his hearing and abruptly halted his nascent speech development.
But thanks to cochlear implant surgery performed on Friday by UCSF ear disorder specialist Lawrence Lustig, MD, the young boy, Mustafa Ghazwan, will soon be making up for lost time.
“He had started saying a few words [before his hearing loss], like ‘mama’ and ‘baba,’ but since then, we have used signs with our hands to communicate,” Al-Nadawi said through an interpreter on Friday, his hands shaking as he waited for Mustafa’s 90-minute surgery to end.
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A 3-year-old Iraqi boy came to San Francisco for surgery and a new chance at life Friday. He lost his hearing when a U.S. missile struck the house next door, but the boy is now recovering at UCSF.
“This is like a birthday for Mustafa today. He is born again,” said father Ghazwan Al-Nadawi through a translator.
Tears and smiles marked an emotion-filled moment at Westminster Presbyterian Church, as three-year-old Mustafa Al Nadawi and his 33-year-old father, Ghazwan, walked down the aisle at the conclusion of the church service on Sunday, January 11 to be introduced to the people who helped raise $6,200 to cover Mustafa’s speech therapy following surgery.
A 3-year-old Iraqi boy whose hearing was destroyed when a U.S. missile struck his next-door neighbor’s house last year will arrive in San Francisco Wednesday to undergo restorative surgery.
Mustafa Ghazwan lost his hearing on June 17, 2007 when a U.S. missile struck his neighborhood in the Iraqi city of Baqouba, according to the Los Angeles-based non-profit No More Victims.
The organization brings children injured in the war in Iraq to the United States for community-sponsored medical treatment, and has arranged for Mustafa to receive a cochlear implant and rehabilitative treatment at University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.
The implant was donated by a private company and the surgery will be performed by Dr. Lawrence Lustig, director of the Douglas Grant Cochlear Implant Center at UCSF, pro bono, according to the organization.
Ann Cothran, national community coordinator for No More Victims, said the organization focuses on children wounded by U.S. forces and has brought 10 Iraqi children to the U.S. for treatment so far.
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A little boy from Iraq got a warm welcome in San Francisco, as he arrived for surgery that will allow him to hear again. He’s getting the help at UCSF, thanks to the generosity of a number of people.
Little Mustafa Ghazwan arrived in the arms of his father. he smiled and waved at about two dozen well wishers, reporters and photographers behind the security glass. At the baggage claim area, Mustafa charmed everyone.
The adoring crowd gave him a welcome any 3-year-old would love — it came with lots of stuffed animals. But the balloons were his favorite. they brought the biggest smile of all on his tiny face. In June of 2007, Mustafa was playing in his Baquba home during a U.S. airstrike. A missile exploded in a neighboring house. The blast killed three other children. Mustafa lived but he lost his hearing.
The child’s father Ghazwan Al-Nadawi says he wrote letters pleading for medical help for his son. “He submitted many request to many people in Iraq, but nobody responded but this organization,” said Al-Nadawi through an interpreter.