Aurora Prize laureate, Armenia officials, Yerevan hospital: A lifesaving combination for Iraqi 3y.o.

Surgeons at Yerevan’s Nork Marash Medical Center have successfully completed a 10-hour congenital heart defect surgery on a three-year-old Iraqi girl who was brought to Armenia for the procedure.

The hospital said in a news release that after the successful surgery the child is currently in the intensive care unit and is breathing without assisted ventilation.

Arzinda, the three-year old patient, was born in a family of Iraqi Yazidi refugees. Her congenital heart defect condition wasn’t possible to be treated in Iraq.

She was 6 months old when her family found out she had the disease. Arzinda already had one operation to stabilize her condition.

Thanks to 2019 Aurora Prize laureate Mirza Dinnayi and his Luftbrücke Irak (Air Bridge Iraq) organization (where he serves as Director, co-founder), and support from Aurora Prize, Arzinda was transported to Yerevan few days ago to be treated in the Nork Marash hospital. The child underwent a comprehensive examination before the surgery.

Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan, Member of Parliament Rustam Bakoyan, Armenian Ambassador to Iraq Hrachya Poladyan and the Nork Marash Medical Center have also greatly assisted the child and her mother in traveling to Armenia and receiving the necessary treatment.