Iraqi teen to return to Mideast after free surgeries in Michigan repair extensive burn scars

Scars repaired, 13-year-old to head back to Iraq

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A badly scarred Iraqi boy who arrived in Michigan with a National Guardsman last spring is getting a big send-off as he heads home.

Mohammed has undergone five surgeries to regain the use of his left hand, rebuild his left ear and attach skin grafts that replaced his scarred scalp. The 13-year-old boy was badly burned in a house fire when he was a baby.

Army National Guard Maj. David Howell will return to Iraq with Mohammed on Sunday. The boy approached Howell in Ramadi in November 2008 and asked to go to America. A send-off ceremony takes place Wednesday in Lansing.

A Michigan State University plastic surgeon did the surgery for free. A Muslim family in East Lansing acted as Mohammed’s host family.