Dean's World

Do you fly on Delta? If so, can I ask you for a favor?

As you may recall from a week or so ago, we told you about a little girl in Iraq who desperately needs surgery in order to recover from a deforming and, more importantly, quite deadly medical condition. We've been asked to call her "Tabby" now, instead of her real name. But here she is, and the deformity of her beautiful face is caused by a condition known as Hemangioma.

It's going to kill her if not treated soon, but with the proper surgery she will not only live but should be restored to a fairly normal appearance.

THE GOOD NEWS - We have arranged the surgery and followup care for her here in the U.S. with the help of Dr. Marcelo Hochman, through the auspices of The Vascular Birthmarks Foundation.

THE BAD NEWS - We need to get her out of Iraq as quickly as possible. It's more expensive than we expected.

HOW YOU CAN HELP - If you fly Delta, you can donate some of your frequent flyer miles to get her out of the country. Details right here. It's fast and it's easy. Don't have any frequent flyer miles? You can go to the Operation Give home page, make a donation, then drop a note to info@operationgive.org to say you'd like the money earmarked for Tabby. By the way, we have one other issue: we're trying to arrange expedited visas to get Tabby out of Iraq. We are in contact with Senator Orrin Hatch's office for assistance with this. However, if anyone out there has any contacts that would help us get visas with all possible speed (the girl won't live much longer if we don't get her out of there) that too would be greatly appreciated.