17-Month-Old Yazidi Child Receives Heart Surgery in Israel
A child from the persecuted Yazidi ethnic group of northern Iraq received heart surgery in Israel.
The 17-month-old, Wisam, was born with congenital heart disease, and he and his father arrived in Israel in June in advance of the surgery, which was performed Sunday.
Wisam’s family — including his mother and two newborn twins — is now among the 200,000 Yazidi families besieged by ISIS, the militant Islamist group, on Mount Sinjar in Iraq. As of Wednesday, Wisam’s father had not made contact with the family.
Dr. Lior Sasson performed the seven-hour surgery at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, outside of Tel Aviv. It was funded and organized by Save a Child’s Heart, which brings children from developing countries to Israel for cardiac treatment.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO