Omar’s mischievous smile never seems to go away. The ten-year-old is a completely normal boy: he loves riding in the car, exploring the area, and he likes shadow games. Just a year ago, Omar was afraid. Fear that the skin bag in which he was carrying his organs would burst in front of his stomach when he slept. He said that to Rona Nawabi, who – like him – comes from Afghanistan and took him to Germany for treatment.
Umbilical cord rupture – death sentence elsewhere
Omar war with umbilical cord rupture born His liver, part of the stomach and intestines were in the abdomen, but in a sac of skin outside the abdomen. Abdominal cleft is a defect that occurs once or twice in 10,000 newborns. In this country, as in most countries around the world, the operation is performed immediately after birth.
“In poorer countries or countries with poor medical care, children are sent home with the aim of letting them die,” says Salmai Turial. He also comes from Afghanistan, studied medicine in Czechoslovakia and the GDR and received his doctorate here. Today he is the main doctor in the Department of Pediatric Surgery, Pediatric Traumatology and Pediatric Urology University of Otto von Guericke Magdeburg.
He would not have survived in Afghanistan.
Salmai Turial, Kinderchirurg in Magdeburg
A year of preparation for the operation
Omar one of the few who survived the defect without treatment. But he always carried the skin bag in front of his stomach, he was always afraid. The Union “Children need us – Kabul-Hamburg children’s airlift” Omar came to know. The association has been organizing medical aid for children from Afghanistan for over 20 years. With donations and volunteer work, children like Omar Wali in Afghanistan are worked on locally or taken to Germany.
Salmai Turial regularly goes on holiday to help children in her home country. “We could have operated on Omar in Afghanistan,” says the pediatric surgeon, “but he wouldn’t have been able to get the post-operative care he needed there. He wouldn’t have lived.” Rona Nawabi organized the flight and sought treatment options and an Afghan foster family in Germany. She found both in Magdeburg. Preparations for the operation began a year ago.
Communication with hands and feet
“If a child carries part of his organs outside the abdominal cavity, then this abdominal cavity does not develop,” says Salmai Turial, describing the challenge of the treatment. To create space for the organs, the abdominal cavity had to be widened and then the abdominal wall had to be put together so that it would not tear open again.
The operation was also something special for the anesthetist Selinde Mertz. Neither she nor her staff wanted to give the boy anti-anxiety drugs. However, it was difficult to allay her fear of the operation because of the language barrier. “Omar hardly spoke any German at the time,” says the senior doctor, “but because he already knew us from the ward and we communicated hand and foot, we were able to joke too and he fell asleep laughing. ” He then woke up “without this problem,” laughs Rona Nawabi.
Collaborate with the Taliban as well
The Union “We need children” According to his own information, he has been able to help more than 400 children since the early 2000s. This cannot be done without the support of Afghanistan. “We are also offered surgical options.” Salmai Turial reports, said for his visits to Afghanistan Because of the strict religious Taliban, he always grew a beard. Not this year because he was sure he didn’t need it. “No one spoke to me either,” he declares, and reports that women also usually work in the north-east of the country, where he was working. This contradicts the image we have of Afghanistan in this country.
When you see the poverty and the problems, you realize how good it is here.
Salmai Turial, Kinderchirurg in Magdeburg
death The University of Magdeburg supported the operation and declared that the costs would be covered for humanitarian reasons. Salmai Turial did not think twice either and immediately agreed when the request came. “We’re doing really well here,” is how he describes his motivation. “It’s because you’re outside where there’s war and you see the poverty and the problems that you realize how well we’re doing here. My intention is to give a piece of it back. pediatric surgeon.” Omar may return to Afghanistan at the end of October. As comfortable as he feels here, as many friends as he has made here, he misses his family and looks forward to being home.
Farewell to the little patients – but the contact remains
The association continues to be in touch with many of the little patients later and follows what happens to them. Some are educated in the stone house in Kabul, which is financed by donations. This is an assisted living and learning facility for children from poor families. However, the girls had to leave the stone house again after the Taliban regained power in the country.
Omar has decided to become a pilot. Maybe one day he will fly other children from Afghanistan to Germany for treatment.