Iraqi boy thankful for Michigan soldier who cared

East Lansing

He was a young boy living in Iraq when he caught the eye of a major in the Michigan Army National Guard.

The boy's mother took off his cap and exposed his disfigured head.

"Will you save me?" the boy, then 11, said to Maj. David Howell.

Five months later, Howell got Mohammed a visa, a passport and a commitment from surgeons at Michigan State University that they would help the boy. Mohammed has since received thousands of dollars in free medical care, giving him a lot to be thankful for during his first Thanksgiving in America.

His story is one of both the gratefulness of a boy and the remarkable commitment of a Michigan National Guardsman, who went off to fight a war and ended up repaying a debt and freeing a child from wounds of his youth. It is also about a boy who has made others feel blessed to have joined his journey.

"Mohammed asked me in plain English, 'Will you save me?' " said Howell, who lives in Grand Ledge and now works as a physician assistant for Flint cardiologists. "I felt an obligation as an American to do something for this family. If I was going to try to do something (for any family), this was it."

Howell, 55, was on a mission to protect a gathering of Iraqi women and children last November in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, when he first saw Mohammed. The women, widows of Iraqi policemen, were collecting government support.

Mohammed's mother plunged into poverty after her husband was killed three years earlier by insurgents because he was an interpreter for American military forces, Howell said. She brought Mohammed to the gathering to show the women his injuries in hopes they would give her money.

Mohammed made eye contact several times with Howell, who was serving as a physician assistant.

Two days later, Howell tracked Mohammed down. That's when Howell said he learned what happened to Mohammed's father and how poor his family had become. He also found out Mohammed never received treatment for disfiguring burns after a house fire when he was an infant. It was an enormous undertaking to get bureaucratic approval and coordinate Mohammed's medical, educational and family care, he said. "It occupied every minute of my spare time," said Howell, who previously served in the Coast Guard for 16 years.

Mohammed struggled a bit to describe his appreciation.

"I feel real happy because I have this nice family and I came here," said Mohammed, now 12. "I've had fun that I have never had before."

Afraid to go back home

Doctors gave Mohammed the last name of "Lansing" to use in medical records. He's known that way locally to protect his identity. The terrorists who killed Mohammed's father in 2005 threatened to kill his mother, five siblings and him if the family had contact with the U.S. military again.

Mohammed is scheduled to return home in April.

"I am excited about seeing my brothers and sisters, but I am not excited about going back to Iraq," said Mohammed, who calls his family weekly to share his progress. "There are terrorists there. I am afraid I am going to get killed in Iraq."

Mohammed remembers the night several men came to his home and took his father. Four days passed before they found him dead in the hospital.

"I was crying," said Mohammed, who was 7 at the time. "It was really hard."

He was a baby when a house fire inflicted burns on about 35 percent of his body, leaving him with a disfigured ear, index finger and head.

Since Mohammed arrived in April, he has received four reconstructive surgeries and at least two more are scheduled. He also has had eight cavities filled and one tooth capped by a Jackson dentist. A Lansing optometrist is getting him glasses. When he goes home, the medical care he will have received is expected to reach about $100,000.

To pay for it, medical professionals caring for Mohammed donated their services, covering about 25 percent of his bills.

"He's a hero of the war, as his dad was," said Edward Lanigan, MSU associate surgery professor. "Mohammed went on a bunch of missions with his dad, as a cover. He and his family have done a lot to try and bring freedom to their people, the kind of freedom we enjoy. I am overjoyed to help him out."

But lab work, X-rays, anesthesia and other hospital procedures are not covered. To help pay those costs, the Michigan Muslim community has worked to raise funds and find private donors. The fundraising has paid for about $40,000 of the costs that have not been donated. But Howell still needs to raise about $20,000 to pay for future surgeries and to get Mohammed home.

He lived life of poverty

The Lansing-area Muslim community enrolled Mohammed at Greater Lansing Islamic School and found him a host family.

"If you think about Mohammed's life, you wouldn't want to be in his place," said 9-year-old Mohammed Naji, whose family is hosting the Iraqi boy. "He's had a hard life."

After Mohammed moved into the East Lansing home, Naji asked him to describe his room in Iraq. Mohammed told the boy he doesn't have his own room. He lived with his mother and five siblings in a two-room dwelling, and they slept together in one room on a dirt floor.

More details of Mohammed's life in Iraq emerged: He didn't own a toothbrush or a pair of shoes. His mother, who can't remarry or work in the culture, begs for money and collects about $700 a year.

That is one of the reasons why Ziena Saeed and her husband, Ritha Naji, decided to host Mohammed in their home.

"Children are really the victims over in Iraq," said Saeed, who was born in Iraq and moved to the United States when she was a year old. "There are an estimated 3 million orphans in Iraq."

It's also been a good experience for their sons, Mohammed and Ali. The boys have learned more about Iraqi culture and to better appreciate their blessings.

"We want our boys to appreciate all that they have," Naji said. "People live here and they don't compare their lives to people who live in other nations."

Saeed gave birth to a third child on Wednesday, a sister for Mohammed and Ali. They are excited about another sibling, but wish Mohammed didn't have to go home.

"I'm going to be really sad when he leaves," said Ali Naji, 8. "It will be just like losing one of your brothers."

Until then, Mohammed is thankful Howell has tried to save him.

But Howell said he is thankful for what Mohammed did -- for expanding his network of friends to include the Muslim community, for being a boy he thinks of as a son and living for a cause he believes in.

"The whole time I have been following a motto," said Howell. "Believe in a cause greater than yourself."

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