U.S. sailor answers Iraqi man's plea

[FishForLunch]

By GRETEL C. KOVACH / The Dallas Morning News



The American sailor and the Iraqi soldier would have been enemies not long ago. But when they met this year in Baghdad, they were just two fathers who would do anything for their sons.



KIM RITZENTHALER / DMN
Drs. Tony Herring (right) and Shyam Lakshminarayan check in on Ali Sa'eed of Iraq, 10, at Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Cmdr. Gary Ulrich, a Navy reservist from Dallas, spent an eight-month deployment signing hundreds of contracts for more than $300 million in Iraqi reconstruction projects.

Possibly his most important project began in June when he met Jamal Sa'eed, a former officer in the Iraqi army, at the construction site where Mr. Sa'eed worked as a supervisor.

Mr. Sa'eed said his son Ali had been shot in the thigh when he was 5 years old during the chaos of the 1998 U.S. bombing of Baghdad. Infection set in, and the foot had to be amputated because of gangrene.

Tunisian doctors had said the boy, now almost 11, needed an operation to help his leg grow properly, but it could be done only in America.

"Can you help us?" the Iraqi father asked the American sailor. Cmdr. Ulrich didn't think he could, but he promised to try.

"I could tell when I met this guy that even if it was just the slightest improvement, even if his son had no improvement at all, he was going to do everything he could," Cmdr. Ulrich said after his recent return to Dallas."That struck me as a father."

Cmdr. Ulrich asked his wife, Carmen Ulrich, to contact their church and the Dallas doctors who had treated their own son's orthopedic problem years ago.

That led them to Dr. Karl Rathjen, who reviewed the X-rays from Iraq. He persuaded Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children – which is supported through donations and usually treats only Texas patients – to take on Ali as a teaching case.

Then came months of wrangling to get a temporary visa for Ali and his father, including two flights by Cmdr. Ulrich to Jordan and, for the Sa'eeds, a 10-hour drive each way across dangerous roads.

"This is a huge financial endeavor for them," Cmdr. Ulrich said. "They've taken a leap of faith, hoping the hospital will be able to help them."

It was a leap for the Ulrichs, too. The Sa'eeds called to say they would arrive just a few days after Cmdr. Ulrich returned to Dallas from his long deployment. Their American hosts didn't think the Sa'eeds spoke any English, and Mrs. Ulrich fretted about what she should feed them.

"It's overwhelming, and a little scary," said Mrs. Ulrich. "We're just going to have to make it work."

On the other side of the world, Mr. Sa'eed wondered how he would ever make it back to America if the doctors said Ali wasn't old enough for the surgery.

And if he were ready, how would they pay for a three- to six-month stay in America? Who would support his wife and four other children back home?


CHERYL DIAZ MEYER / DMN
Navy Cmdr. Gary Ulrich (left) and wife Carmen welcomed Jamal Sa'eed and son Ali after a tiring trip from Baghdad last week.
Their flight was delayed 21/2 hours. But when the little boy wearing a pressed suit and a tired but brilliant smile walked off the plane near midnight one day last week, the Ulrichs appeared to forget their concerns.

Mrs. Ulrich placed a protective hand on Ali's back and helped him lug his bags to their SUV stickered with "Support Our Troops" magnets.

"What a beautiful child," she said, chucking Ali under the chin.

The Ulrichs found that Mr. Sa'eed and his son spoke a little English, and even before they left the airport, the visitors had something important to say.

"Mr. Gary is a good man. And I want to talk to the people of Dallas," said Mr. Sa'eed. "I tell them, 'Thank you, thank you all people, thank you government, thank you President Bush.' "

They had a few days to get acquainted with their American hosts and look around Dallas before their first doctor's appointment Friday.

They toured the Dallas Zoo and Dallas World Aquarium. Ali scampered across the river stones at Pioneer Plaza like any little boy and tired only after hours of walking.

He appeared younger than his age, but the persistent violence in his home country matured him beyond his years.

"If they saw you in Baghdad they would shoot you," he remarked casually, walking hand in hand one day with a new American friend.

At home, he charmed the Ulrich siblings by playing video games with Stephen, 21, and teaching Lydia, 25, the Arabic names for household items.

But there were lessons on both sides in intercultural understanding – like the awkward moment when Mr. Sa'eed mentioned that Muslim Iraqi men can have four wives. He was equally puzzled by a certain fashion among some American men.

"What does it mean when the man wears something here?" he asked, tugging on a lobe where an earring might be.

Their hosts hoped they would like hamburgers, but "maybe he's a lamb man," Cmdr. Ulrich concluded.

On Friday morning, Cmdr. Ulrich sat in the waiting room at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital, where he had helped fill out forms for another little boy about 15 years before.

It seemed like providence that Mr. Sa'eed just happened to approach a man from Dallas, home to one of the world's premier hospitals for pediatric orthopedics, a man whose own son had trouble walking as a child and was treated in the same hospital.

"I don't like hospitals," Mr. Sa'eed said, recalling Ali's four surgeries and six months in Tunisia, getting better care than Iraq could provide.

Dr. Tony Herring, the hospital's chief of staff and an expert in his field of pediatric orthopedic surgery, had feared that Ali needed surgery to lengthen his leg, help the bone heal properly and clear up any lingering infection.

"Five centimeters short," Mr. Sa'eed told the doctor as he examined the boy's limbs.

They had to travel 11,000 miles for the verdict. But after prodding Ali's scarred stump of an ankle and examining the X-rays, Dr. Herring concluded: "I don't think he needs a new operation. It's all healed up nicely."

At first, Ali's father seemed disappointed. He showed the roomful of doctors Ali's uneven hips and how he tended to lurch if he tried to walk without his old prosthetic foot.

But Dr. Herring explained that they could do something better for Ali by fashioning a new, modern prosthesis molded to his shin in plastic and steel.

"We want him to play soccer," he told Mr. Sa'eed.

His staff helped relieve the Sa'eeds' worries by introducing them to a Texas teenager who plays on the football team with his prosthesis.

"I think we can really help this little guy," Dr. Herring said later. "He'll have a lot more mobility. It will be easier to put on, and more durable."

"No operation, that's great news!" Cmdr. Ulrich said, congratulating father and son in the waiting room.

Just six more weeks, and the Sa'eeds can return home to Iraq, bringing a piece of America with them, a gift from one father to another.

The Dallas Morning News will continue to report on the Sa'eeds during their trip to North Texas.

[Drbio]

What a wonderful story.