‘Miracle baby’ burned in tent fire defies odds – but mum says society shunned her | World news

Dalal is a little Syrian girl who they never thought would survive.

Now four years old, despite her horrific burn scars and no arms, she is once again confounding doctors, her family and everyone who knows her.

We watch as she concentrates intently on maneuvering the pen between the stumps she has left. It’s hard work for a little girl with no fingers.

She’s bent right over the paper she’s working on, trying hard to write her name as well as simple numbers. We noticed that he can draw outlines that resemble a heart.

This young girl, so severely crippled by fire, has a big heart despite her physical handicaps.

Her eyesight isn’t dazzling either, with heavy skin scars all over her face making it difficult to fully open them. Dalal’s skull is bare, but there are tufts of hair on the nape of his neck.

But her older sisters, Gazal and Hala, tie the little hair she has into a ponytail like they do.

Doctors fought for months to save Dalal’s life, not really believing they would succeed or that she would have the strength for the many surgeries she needed to handle.

When we first saw hershe was covered from head to toe in bandages and had many terrible burns.

We first reported on her when she was still a baby. The fire tore through her family’s tent, which had been set up in a field to the northwest Syria in the middle of winter 2021.

Her family fled their home in Idlib province and were close to the Turkish border – along with tens of thousands of others trying to escape regime bombardment and fighting between Bashar al-Assad’s forces, anti-regime groups and other militias.

The winter was harsh and the temperature in their tent was close to freezing. The adults lit the fireplace stove to try to warm the family of six young children. But Stan somehow caught fire.

Her eldest sister Yasmin, who was about 10 years old, desperately tried to save Dalal, who was still a child at the time. But Yasmin was quickly engulfed in flames and smoke and could not be resuscitated.

Four of her younger siblings managed to scramble to safety or were helped by help, but Dalal was already engulfed in flames. When they pulled her out, she was terribly burned and barely alive.

Turkish authorities allowed her to be taken across the border as a medical emergency and she was taken to a hospital in Mersin – at this stage unaccompanied by family members.

A team of doctors and nurses worked tirelessly to save her.

‘Skin black as cole’

Lead surgeon Dr. Cagatay Demirci told me he never believed they could save her. She was so badly hurt; her burns were so deep and she was so young that the challenges seemed insurmountable.

Her skin was “as black as coal in many places,” the doctor said.

“Our team went to work on her and did what we could, but we left that night thinking she wasn’t going to make it through the night,” he said at the time.

“But when we came back in the morning, she was still here, still alive. And we thought well, this kid wants to live.”

And as she continued to go through each complex operation—and there were many—she confused everyone. They called her a “prodigy”.

But the surgeons could not save her fingers and had to amputate all her fingers. Her face was horribly burnt, flames were eating her eyelids, lips, hair, ears and hair follicles and feet.

Dr Demirci said at the time: “She will need many, many operations throughout her childhood as she grows and develops.”

Sky’s coverage of her amazing survival was noticed by a single mother in Britain who was so moved by Dalal’s story of tragedy and perseverance that she set up a JustGiving page.

Within weeks, Lisa Cavey saw tens of thousands of pounds raised to pay for a brand new life for Dalal’s family.

First, her father Abdul Fattah traveled to her turkey and stayed with her for months as she had surgery after surgery.

When it became clear that her survival depended on her being off the Syrian battlefield and staying in Turkey to get medical help, donations ensured passports were organized and the rest of the family funded.

Turkish authorities agreed that her heavily pregnant mother and four siblings could join her.

The money helped pay rent for the family, who now live as refugees in southern Turkey along with four million other Syrians who fled the war across the border. It also contributed to the medical assistance – as Dalal is likely to need more surgeries in the coming years.

Ms Cavey has been in regular contact with the family since then. “I cried when I saw the news about Dalal,” she told me.

“As a mother, I realized that it could have been my daughter. They are of a similar age.

“I just felt it was so bad that it happened and the family was in this situation through no fault of their own. I felt compelled to take some action.”

A Turkish charity called INARA, founded and run by journalist Arwa Damon, took up Dalal’s case and helped connect her with doctors and physiotherapists who have been helping her with her injuries ever since.

“Dalal’s case is exactly why I started INARA,” she explained.

“To be an organization that is willing and able to take on complex cases that require critical operations throughout a child’s development,” adds Ms. Damon.

“I’ve often seen in my experience in war zones that these children tend to fall through the cracks in accessing medical care or don’t get as many surgeries as they need and as such end up relegated to a life in the shadows.

“Inara, through its medical and mental health program, basically gives them the ability to see that their life is not over, that they deserve and can be part of society, even though it may be difficult.”

Brave Dalal “not accepted”

But the war in Gaza, as well as the global economic downturn, has led to a drain on public finances and the diversion of much aid to humanitarian groups.

Doctors believe that Dalal needs several expensive surgeries and are investigating whether it is possible to create fingers for her, perhaps by carrying out a complex transplant of some of her fingers.

Nothing has been decided yet as they explore the best options, but any operation is expensive and Turkish authorities are grappling with inflation of around 70% and a crippling cost of living crisis.

Her mother, Fatima, prays for more medical attention for her daughter and describes the heartbreaking moments on the playground when other children spot Dalal.

“She’s screaming in fear,” he says. “The company doesn’t accept her. That’s a fact.” He says he’s trying to get any school to accept Dalal for the same reason.

Dalal is wonderfully independent, shrugging her shoulders as she pulls on her own socks with stumps – and climbing up the kitchen doorframe, placing her severed hands to hold herself up.

Each success is applauded by her family – but her now five siblings tell us of hours of frustration, tears and anger.

“She cuts salad with us,” says her eldest sister Gazal. “He wants to do everything, but he cries and says ‘why don’t I have fingers?’

Alex Crawford reports from southern Turkey with cameraman Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham and Syrian producer Mahmoud Mosa.