(A follow-up to the NSCIA CT Chapter article "National Spinal Cord Injury Assn. Helps Rebuild Iraqi Girl's Life", printed from the NSCIA National website.)

She lost five family members and was paralyzed when a U.S. mortar attack in late November accidentally struck her home.

But 12-year-old Ma'rwa Ahteemi - an Iraqi child who today sleeps on an Army cot in a field hospital meant for soldiers - might finally be getting the specialized medical help she desperately needs.

Sgt. 1st Class John Mileham with the Iowa City-based 109th Medical Battalion Headquarters and Support Company alerted U.S. officials of Ma'rwa's spinal cord injury in December. On Friday, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, announced that the Department of Defense approved her evacuation from the dangerous Sunni Triangle to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Ma’rwa Ahteemi, 12, waves while being treated at a field hospital in Iraq.

"She is going to be evacuated, hopefully, in the next week," said Maureen Knightly, a spokeswoman for Harkin's office.

Her prognosis is not to run and play again, but instead to maybe be fitted with leg braces or crutches and learn how to be mobile again. She will learn how to bathe herself, dress herself, empty her bladder and manage her bowels - processes over which she no longer has control since the mortar struck her home.

"Things that we take for granted, she has lost the ability to do all of that," said Dr. Sandeep Simlote, who will take Ma'rwa's case when she arrives at the hospital. "In the next weeks to months, we will know how much more is possible and what sensation is preserved. ... We only strengthen what's there. We don't bring about anything new."

Complicating treatment, a growing ulcer has eaten into the muscle of her lower back and buttock.

Knightly said it is believed Ma'rwa's parents are alive. An uncle will accompany her to Washington. Her brother Isaam, 16, and sister Rajaa, 5, also are critically ill with bone infections. They received open fractures to their legs, and both are in danger of losing limbs.

"I can tell you that, as of this afternoon, I don't think we're anywhere" on getting them evacuated, said Marcie Roth, CEO of The National Spinal Cord Injury Association in Bethesda, Md.

Mileham first e-mailed Roth about Ma'rwa on Dec. 22. Mileham, a native of Emmetsburg, now of Indianapolis, was mobilized in January and deployed in March to the Middle East. The 109th is not expected to return home until late spring or early summer.

"There are wonderful American medical personnel over there, doing their darndest to give these kids medical help," Roth said, adding the tent hospital is a place meant to stabilize wounded soldiers and ship them out within 48 hours. "This is a hospital not (equipped) for long-term medical care. But there is nowhere for these children to go."

A pediatrician is on loan from another location but has no experience with spinal injuries. The only physical therapist on hand is supposed to ship out within 48 to 72 hours, Roth said, making Ma'rwa's evacuation more pressing. Doctors in the United States are assisting via e-mail and satellite phone.

While there remains some final paperwork to be handled, officials said clearance for Ma'rwa's evacuation comes directly from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Questions remain, however, about the fate of her siblings, who could go elsewhere in the region or to Europe - which process dictates should be checked first before considering treatment options in the United States.

At the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Simlote said Ma'rwa will be admitted to a 10- to 15-bed pediatric ward as the medical center's first Iraqi casualty of war. The hospital is accepting financial responsibility for her, officials said.

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