When Navy Lt. Jobe Galli arrived in northern Afghanistan in mid-April for a yearlong deployment he met Rahim Amiri, a carpenter working alongside American officers stationed at camp Mike Spann in Mazir-e Sharif.

Galli — based at Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific, Pearl Harbor — knew Amiri was a hard-working foreman and a loving father of two young children. Besides fatherhood and general work ethic, however, Galli assumed he had little in common with the Afghan citizen who speaks no English and lives in a house without running water amid rusty carcasses of old Soviet tanks that litter the landscape.

That assumption was quickly shot down when Galli was given a batch of personnel files to review.

Amiri's file noted that his toddler son had been diagnosed with a serious medical problem. Galli instantly recognized it as similar to the heart defect his own son had as a newborn. Galli's son, also named Jobe, underwent surgery at 8 days old, and is now a healthy 6-year-old.

Galli said he felt a twinge of guilt because it was much easier to get help for his own son in the United States. "It didn't seem fair" he said.

2 HEART DEFECTS

His predecessor at the camp, Navy Lt. (j.g.) Travis Bunt, had raised money to have Amiri and his wife take their son, Hibrahim, to the French Medical Institute in Kabul. Doctors there had pinpointed the child's condition as atrial septal defect, ASD in medical parlance, and transposition of the great arteries, or TGA.

TGA means the heart effectively has two separate blood-flow patterns instead of the whole heart working together. The left side of the heart pumps blood to the lungs to get oxygen. The blood then returns to the left side and is sent right back to the lungs and, therefore, is unable to deliver oxygen to the body. The right side of the heart, meanwhile, pumps blood to the body, but the blood returns to the right side and never gets to the lungs to pick up oxygen.

Because little Hibrahim also had ASD — a hole between the two upper heart chambers — just enough oxygen-rich blood was able to sneak over to the right side of the heart to keep the boy alive. All of this overworked Hibrahim's heart, leaving him feeling lethargic. His right arm would hang limp, most likely from being numb. And he was often too weak and listless to walk.

SENT HOME TO DIE

Before the diagnosis, Hibrahim's parents knew something was seriously wrong with their baby. He would often turn blue. Family members would take turns staying up at night to shake Hibrahim awake when he stopped breathing, and he was frequently rushed to a local clinic, which was not prepared to help a child with a serious heart condition.

After the diagnosis, Amiri was crestfallen when told there were no physicians in the area who could do the operation. He said doctors told him to stop wasting his money and to take his son home, where he would eventually die from his disease.

They would say, "Masha'allah," meaning God's will.

By early May, Galli had put together a written a summary of Hibrahim's condition and sent it to several humanitarian aid programs, charity groups and pediatric cardiologists. He also asked family and friends to forward the summary to anyone they thought could help.

"I knew I couldn't live with myself if I wasn't doing everything in my power to help him," Galli wrote in an e-mail to friends and family.

Galli said the response to the mailings was overwhelmingly supportive, and he found a pediatric surgeon in Wilmington, Del., who was ready to help.

Arranging travel to the United States for an Afghan family with a weak toddler, however, was a complicated task. Travel logistics were simplified when Galli received an e-mail that would eventually reroute the journey to nearby Pakistan.

"I got this e-mail and almost deleted it with the junk mail," he recalled. It was a news release about two Army officers who had arranged for two Afghan children from Kabul to have heart surgeries.

Galli immediately contacted the officers, who then put him in touch with The International Children's Heart Foundation in Memphis, Tenn., founded by Dr. William M. Novick. "I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner," Galli said, pointing out that he had been making donations to the foundation since his son underwent heart surgery.

MISSION TO PAKISTAN

Foundation officials told Galli that a medical mission would be under way in June at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. When he learned that the Amiri family would need about $5,000 to cover costs tied to the operation, Galli sent out more e-mails asking for donations. Within two weeks, 38 people opened their wallets and pitched in.

Galli's co-worker in Afghanistan, Navy Lt. George Suh said, "I was compelled to help, because I was told Hibrahim was their only son, and I saw how much they loved him."

He added, "Also, I saw the potential Hibrahim could bring growing up healthy in a free Afghanistan."

Other donations came from some of Galli's co-workers at Pearl Harbor.

But before Galli was able to send the Amiri family to Pakistan, he first had to convince Amiri's wife, Salima, that the operation was a sure thing. "I had to have my interpreter's wife call her and tell her everything was in order," Galli said.

The Amiris planned to fly from Kabul to Pakistan, but the couple said an unscrupulous ticket agent tried to charge them $2,000 for a ticket that normally costs less than $200. So, the family took a three-day taxi ride, which cost them $40.

Hibrahim underwent a successful operation in June, and returned home in late July. He is able to stand with some help and can also move his right arm.

The foundation's administrative director, Sandy McMahon, said, "I'm very impressed by Lt. Galli and his efforts."

Galli is now trying to get another child on the list for heart surgery. He said the word is out about the assistance Hibrahim received, and others have come seeking help.

And Hibrahim?

"He is crawling all over the place and is being chased everywhere," Galli said.

Lisa McLean is a freelance writer. Her husband is an active-duty Navy officer.