No More Victims - News Archive

OCT. 23, 2006: Noora Afif Abdulhameed is hit by a sniper’s bullet in Iraq on her way home from a family celebration. The bullet makes a large hole in her skull and destroys her cerebral membrane, the protective covering that surrounds the brain. Noora lies in a coma for 10 days.

JUNE 6, 2008: Noora and her father, Afif Abdulhameed Otaiwi, leave their hometown of Heet and travel to Amman, Jordan, the first leg of their journey to America.

JULY 10, 2008: Noora and her father arrive at the Portland Jetport, where they are greeted by a crowd of well-wishers.

JULY 15, 2008: Noora goes to Maine Medical Center for the first time for a CT scan to assess the extent of her head injury. Doctors are unable to find a usable vein because of the scar tissue she’s developed getting numerous IVs in Iraq, and the procedure is delayed for a few days.

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A seven-year-old girl is finally enjoying a long-awaited reunion with her mother and siblings, after spending nearly a year in Maine. Noora Abdulhameed and her father traveled to Portland for medical treatment to repair injuries she suffered during the war.

For the past year, NECN reporter Marnie MacLean and videographer Dave Brosemer have followed Noora’s progress. They bring you Noora’s journey.

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SCARBOROUGH (March 3, 2009): Harrison Tice loves to roller skate. He does it a few times a week playing street hockey in his Scarborough neighborhood. Now the 10-year-old is taking his love for his pastime and turning it into a way to help a young lady he calls “one special person.”

Since late January, Harrison has been planning a fundraiser to help pay medical expenses for Noora Afif Abdulhameed, a 7-year-old Iraqi girl injured in the fighting in Iraq in 2006. She has been in Portland since last summer, receiving medical treatment for head injuries.

Harrison with Noora. (Photo by Elizabeth Campbell)

“I just wanted to help her,” Harrison said. “I understand that I am pretty lucky to live here and that other kids aren’t as lucky. I thought this would be a good way to give back.”

Harrison, along with Happy Wheels in Portland, will host two hours of skating at the rink on March 14. All proceeds will go to Noora’s cause and skate rentals are free during the event.

“I like to skate and I figured this is something others might want to do as well,” Harrison said.

Harrison learned about Noora’s plight after studying and reporting on the war in Iraq as part of a cultural studies project in his fifth-grade class at Breakwater School in Portland.

While doing research, he came across Noora’s story in a newspaper and decided to take his project a step further and raise money for her, said his mother, Elizabeth Campbell.

In October 2006, Noora, who was 5 at the time, was shot in the head by U.S. snipers. According to the advocacy Web site www.nomorevictims.org, Noora’s medical records show she had sustained an explosive bullet injury to her head that smashed skull bones and ruptured her cerebral membrane.

She underwent several neurological surgeries in Iraq, but members of nomorevictims.org brought her to Portland so she could undergo more surgery to repair her skull.

Harrison met Noora in February during school vacation. The visit, he said, strengthened his desire to help.

“In Iraq she didn’t always have electricity or clean water and that made me sad,” Harrison said. “I had fun getting to meet her and I can’t believe how well she speaks English.”

Harrison sought his mother’s help in his quest to aid Noora.

“He came to me and said he wanted to do this,” Campbell said. “I always knew he was a caring kid, but this isn’t something you really expect to come from a 10-year-old.”

Initially, Harrison thought he would raise some money through a bottle drive. Then, with his mom’s help, he began calling Greater Portland businesses to see if they would be interested in hosting an event to defray costs of Noora’s medical care.

Many businesses were interested in an arrangement where 25 percent of the proceeds would go to Noora’s cause.

That was good, but Harrison had another idea. He decided to call Happy Wheels in Portland, one of his favorite places to skate. He then got what he described as some of the best news of his life.

“They told me they would help and that they would donate all of the money from the event to Noora,” he said.

And so, on Saturday, March 14, Happy Wheels is going to do just that, manager Dan Dyer said. The fundraiser will go from 5:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. and admission is $4.50.

“We couldn’t believe they were donating all 100 percent of those proceeds to this cause,” Campbell said. “We were shocked.”

Dyer said Happy Wheels owner Paul White believes in fundraising causes that help children like Noora. To him, hosting the event was a no-brainer, Dyer said.

“We are just glad we can help,” Dyer said. “Paul White is big into giving back and we felt this one of the best ways we could do that.”

Harrison said he doesn’t have any monetary goal for the fundraiser, but said he hopes at least a few people will show up.

“Not everybody can be there and not everybody can skate,” Harrison said. “This allows them to still give if they want to.”

Noora is currently staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Portland and is scheduled for more surgery, Campbell said.

If people don’t skate or can’t make the event, they can still donate money to Noora’s cause by e-mailing Campbell at ecamp.main.rr.com, or calling her at 885-1373.

In the days before doctors were scheduled to repair her shattered skull earlier this month, Noora Afif Abdulhameed occasionally talked about what was going to happen to her. The words would tumble out all at once, in one sentence, in between the games and laughs that blocked out the fear.

“I think surgery Friday,” the 7-year-old Iraqi girl would say to her friend Susi Eggenberger, an Arundel resident who has been like a mother to her during her stay in Maine.

“Tomorrow surgery.”

“It’s been on her mind a lot,” Eggenberger said the day before the surgery. “Needing a few more hugs today.”

As scary as the prospect of brain surgery was to Noora and her father, Afif Abdulhameed Otaiwi, it was what they had been waiting for since being flown to Portland five months ago by No More Victims, a nonprofit group that brings war-injured Iraqi children to the United States for treatment.

On Dec. 11, doctors were just 24 hours away from repairing the damage inflicted by an American sniper’s bullet two years ago in Noora’s hometown of Heet. The bullet made a large hole in Noora’s skull and destroyed her cerebral membrane. In several operations in Iraq, doctors removed pieces of bone and covered the gaping wound with skin from Noora’s thigh to temporarily protect her brain.

But to be whole again, Noora needed replacement “bone” attached to her skull, a prosthetic that would be with her the rest of her life.

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Just hours before Noora Afif Abdulhameed’s surgery to repair her damaged skull, her father is speaking soothingly to her in Arabic.

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Five months after arriving in Portland from Iraq, 7-year-old Noora Afif Abdulhameed had surgery at Maine Medical Center on Friday to repair her damaged skull, which was partially shattered by a sniper’s bullet two years ago.

In a delicate six-hour operation, Drs. James Wilson and John Atwood meticulously cut away the skin graft that Iraqi doctors had placed over Noora’s brain in previous operations to save her life. Then they placed prosthetic bone, custom-made for Noora’s head, over the injury.

“It went beautifully,” said Wilson, a Portland pediatric neurosurgeon, after the most difficult part of the operation was over.

The surgery took longer than expected because of the difficulty of separating the scarred skin from the brain tissue without causing brain damage.

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Noora Afif Abdulhameed sits quietly next to her papa in a waiting room at Maine Medical Center, waiting to be called in for her first pre-operative test.

She’d slept in until 7 on this Tuesday morning in July, so breakfast was just a little milk from the hospital cafeteria. Now she’s waiting for some cream applied to the backs of her hands to numb her skin so that a routine IV may be inserted.

The 6-year-old was scheduled for a CT scan at 8:30 a.m. to give doctors a better picture of damage to her skull, which was partially shattered by an American sniper’s bullet on Oct. 23, 2006, in her hometown of Heet, Iraq.

Noora seems cheerful – she had spoken to other members of her family in Iraq on the phone the night before – but a bit nervous.

“It’s stirring up old memories for her, I think, but Afif convinced her it’s not an operation,” says Susi Eggenberger. The Arundel resident and her husband helped bring Noora and her father, Afif Abdulhameed Otaiwi, to Portland for surgery to repair Noora’s head, and are guiding them through their stay.

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A six-year-old Iraqi girl is recovering from surgery in Maine hospital. We first introduced Noora Abdulhameed six weeks ago when she arrived in Portland, Maine. A group called “No More Victims” arranged for Noora to come for free medical care.

Noora was shot two years ago during the war and suffered serious head injuries. Friday, doctors began their work to help her recover.

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PORTLAND, MAINE — Afif Abdulhameed Otaiwi sat down to lunch Friday at the StarEast Cafe on Forest Avenue with a big smile on his face, his eyes beaming.

“I am very happy now,” he said as he and daughter Noora dug into a plate of chicken and lamb kabobs served with basmati rice and vegetables.

Otaiwi had just received a phone call from his family in Iraq, the first communication they’ve had since he and Noora landed in Portland on Thursday afternoon.

With the help of a nonprofit group called No More Victims, Otaiwi brought 6-year-old Noora to Portland so she can receive treatment at Maine Medical Center. Noora was shot by a U.S. sniper on Oct. 23, 2006, as she was riding in the family car, and lost part of her skull.

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