The doctors at Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh, Uptown, who fixed Sabaa's severely cleft palate during a five-hour surgery Tuesday morning, dramatically changed her life and also her father's impression of the United States.

"This has changed my perception of this country a lot," Layth Faik, Sabaa's father, said during a news conference after the surgery. Faik speaks Arabic but his sister, Khlood Salman, of Squirrel Hill, translated.

Mercy agreed to help Sabaa, pronounced "Seh-beh," who was born with a two-sided cleft lip and palate. She had several surgeries in Iraq, but none resolved the most serious problems that kept her from speaking, drinking and eating normally -- problems that made her extremely shy and drew cruel teasing from other children.

"This is one of the most complicated clefts a child can have," said Dr. Daniel Pituch, chief of the hospital's division of oral and maxillofacial surgery.

The palate is crucial for children because it seals off the mouth from the nasal cavity during speech. When Sabaa drank, water ran into her nose. Her speech was severely nasal-sounding. And her upper permanent canine teeth would not have been able to develop properly without surgery.

Sabaa's surgery involved taking a piece of her right hip bone and transplanting it into her jaw. The surgery was a success and she was listed in serious, but stable condition.

The doctors intend to perform a second surgery to help correct cosmetic problems, possibly in the fall. They intend to check Sabaa annually via "telemedical equipment" and with the help of doctors in Jordan and Baghdad.

The Faiks lobbied humanitarian organizations for help with Sabaa's condition and eventually were referred to Mercy where the case caught the attention of Costello and Dr. Daniel Pituch. The hospital agreed to pay for Sabaa's care.

The U.S. Embassy in Jordan granted six-month visas to Sabaa and Layth to seek treatment. They arrived in Pittsburgh in May and have been living in Squirrel Hill and Murrysville, Westmoreland County, with family and friends.

"I went through a lot until I could get here but it's a dream come true," Layth Faik said. "I'm sure my daughter, when she grows up, she won't forget that."

The Faiks followed a different path to Pittsburgh for medical treatment than Abdul-Hakeem Khalaf, the 7-year-old Iraqi boy who came here Feb. 19 with his father to undergo a series of facial reconstructive surgeries at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Oakland.

The boy was badly injured by a bomb that landed on his home. He was brought to the United States by No More Victims, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that helps injured Iraqi children get medical treatment.

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