Posted on 03/06/2005 4:44:21 AM PST by SteveYoung
Meet Sajad Nihad. Imagine you are looking into a little boy’s eyes and while you are separated by a generation, a culture, and a language, he’s clearly communicating to you, “Hey US soldier, I’m scared. But you’re all I’ve got". That is what happened today when I met Sajad. Kids usually smile when you give them a “Marhaba!” and tussle their hair. Sajad, wearing a wool hat and three shirts under his sweater to keep warm, clung close to his dad’s shoulders as his stringy legs limp from under use bounced with each of his father’s steps. Not up to returning a quick grin, little Sajad had other things on his mind. His dad, sweating profusely as he rushed his son towards the medical intake sector, managed a courteous smile and I immediately followed them to the office and stayed close. As the Doctor of the IAC examined this little boy who patiently held up his shirt with his blue fingers, his eyes stared off into that place in the ceiling where he was looking for a bit of hope. His father informed the doctor with each probe that Sajad had lost his appetite that’s why he was so thin. After the examination, both father and son worked together for the little boy to sit up. In silence, we waited as his father gently put his son’s shoes back on and straightened out his shirt. When his father had to hand the doctor some medial information, he gently placed his son on the floor where Sajad folded up like a frog as that is a position most comfortable for Sajad’s heart. Along the way, the doctors were informing me, a non medical person, of all the symptoms of Sajad’s congenital heart disease. His lips, fingers, and toes were not blue, they were purple due to lack of oxygen. His fingers and toes start to curl in a “clubbing” of the digits. His size was smaller for a 9 year old, more like a young boy of 6 or 7, due to the weak heart. He loses his appetite because it is an effort to chew and digest. His heart has Transposition of Great Arteries, Double Outlet Right Ventricles with a large VSD, and severe pulmonary Stenosis. With surgery, his heart can be fixed. His color will return, he can walk and then run and get those legs with some muscles, his fingers and hands will grow thick and strong. And perhaps, that smile would return. Over all, he needs help right away. Not next week, not next month. Now. Please let Sajad know that I’m not all he’s got. He’s got you. He needs all of us. Contact me if you can help.
This message continues at our site
http://www.therealiraq.org
...with the Full name and address of the US Sargent that is trying to help this boy. PLEASE at least send him a support email, point him in the right direction, or tell us how to help. The end of his letter is also open to comments at our site.
Steve
"Contact me if you can help"
Are you wanting people to contact YOU or to contact the person who wrote this?
The contact info for this person according to the info on this posters blog is marikay.satryano@us.army.mil
And Sgt. Satryano's online journal is here http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/deployment/marikay_satryano.shtml. Why Sgt. Satryano has not posted this info on the little boy on her online blog, I do not know....
I wouldn't send money or personal info to a newly registered person on FR if I were you.
mark
Whats cool is I'll get a couple million for my trouble. Can't wait.
Super!
But just an idea: next time you post "Contact me if you can help" in your message and you want them to contact someone other than yourself, you might include the contacts information, which I did for you.
There is a program through the University of Alabama at Birmingham: http://www.uab.edu/hearttoheart/mission.htm
I know LadyPilgrim has been involved with them on a volunteer basis, so she might know more about the details/requirements, etc.
UAB has very good heart surgeons. My wife (at age 22) had her fourth open-heart surgery there a year ago.
So where's the link to the source of the original message, or is this something you got via email??
Because in your original post it is written (whether or not you wrote it or just pasted someone elses writings)
"...Please let Sajad know that I’m not all he’s got. He’s got you. He needs all of us. Contact me if you can help"What I am saying is the part in bold ("Contact me if you can help") which is also on the site you linked to at http://www.therealiraq.org/ includes the Sargeants email address at your site, but it is left off here. It makes it look here like you want the reader to contact YOU personally when you write "Contact me if you can help" and don't provide someone elses contact info.
Do you understand what my point is?
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