UPDATE: 4-Month-Old Iranian Baby Has Successful Surgery After Receiving Travel Waiver

Credit: OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital via the Reshad family
Credit: OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital via the Reshad family
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Little Fatemah Reshad from Iran is doing well and is expected to make a full recovery after she received life-saving heart surgery in the U.S.

The 4-month-old received surgery on Feb. 17 and is doing well, physicians from the OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital said in a news conference Monday.

Fatemah suffered from a life-threatening congenital heart defect called heart transposition of the great arteries with ventricle septal defects and pulmonary arterial hypertension.

“Fatemeh was born with a very rare and complex form of heart disease that affects about two in 10,000 newborns,” OHSU cardiologist Dr. Laurie Armsby explained. “Two arteries in Fatemeh’s heart are switched and she was born with holes in her heart — it’s a condition called septal defects.”

READ: 4-Month-Old Iranian Baby Granted Travel Waiver to Undergo Life-Saving Heart Surgery in U.S.

“The blood coming back from the body goes into the right heart and then is pumped back to the body. It doesn’t have the opportunity to go into the lungs and pick up oxygen,” Armsby

Without oxyden in here blood, the condition could cause irreversible damage to the lungs if left untreated.

“She has blue blood coming into the heart and going right back out to the body,” Armsby said.

Doctors had to switch two of her heart’s arteries in order to get oxygenated red blood flowing.

After the surgery, doctors say she’s “out of the woods” and “recovering.”

“Her heart function looks beautiful,” Armsby said.

The doctors said they didn’t know how long Fatemah will remain in the hospital, but she is expected to make a full recovey.

Fatemah’s uncle, Samad Taghizadeh, said the family is overwhelmed by the support and generosity it has received from strangers during his niece’s health scare.

“I am thankful forever to you,” Taghizadeh said. I’m so happy and I’m proud of the U.S.”

Earlier this month, the tourist visas for Fatemah’s family was abruptly canceled due to President Donald Trump’s executive order banning the entry of people from seven predominately Muslim countries, including Iran, Fox News reported. A week later, a waiver was granted for the family to travel to the U.S.

(H/T: The Associated Press)

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