Iraqi infant awaits surgery in Atlanta

ATLANTA (AP) -- An Iraqi infant with severe birth defects arrived in Atlanta on Saturday for medical treatment that was offered after U.S. soldiers discovered her during a raid on a home.
Baby Noor al-Zahra, or "Baby Nora" to the Americans, was responsive Saturday evening and in good condition, said Kevin McClelland, spokesman for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. He said it likely will be another week before she goes into surgery.
The three-month-old child left Baghdad in a military transport plane Friday, accompanied by her grandmother and father.
U.S. troops discovered the baby three weeks ago during a raid of a house in Abu Ghraib, a poverty-stricken district west of Baghdad. The soldiers noticed paralysis in the baby's legs and what appeared to be a tumor on her back.
They later learned the 3-month-old child had spina bifida, a birth defect in which the backbone and spinal cord do not close before birth. The "tumor" on the baby's back was actually a fluid-filled sac containing part of the spinal cord and membranes that are supposed to cover the spinal cord.
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