‘Wonder baby’ burns in tent fire and beats all odds – but mum says she’s being shunned by society

Dalal is the little Syrian girl they never thought would survive.

Now four years old, despite horrific burns and no hands, she is once again confusing the doctors, her family and everyone who knows her.

We watch her concentrate hard on maneuvering a cage between the stumps she was left with. It’s hard work for the little girl with no fingers.

She’s hunched over the paper she’s working on, doing her best to write both her name and simple numbers. We notice that she manages to draw contours that resemble hearts.

This young girl, so badly maimed by the fire, has a big heart despite her physical disadvantages.

Her eyesight isn’t great either, with heavy scars all over her face, making it difficult to fully open them. Dalal’s skull is bald, except for tufts of hair on the nape of her neck.

But her older sisters, Gazal and Hala, tie what little hair she has into a ponytail like theirs.

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

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

We first reported on her when she was a baby. A fire had ripped through her family’s tent, which was pitched in a field to the northwest Syria in the middle of winter 2021.

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

The winter was bitter and the temperature in their tent was around freezing. There was a fire stove that the adults lit to keep the family with six small children warm. But somehow the tent caught fire.

Her eldest sister, Yasmin, who was about ten, desperately tried to save Dalal, who was still a baby at the time. But Yasmin was soon overwhelmed by flames and smoke and could not be resuscitated.

Four of her younger siblings managed to escape to safety or were helped, but Dalal had already gone up in flames. By the time she was pulled out, she had been horribly burned and was barely alive.

Turkish authorities gave permission to take her across the border as a medical emergency and she was taken to Mersin Hospital – unaccompanied by family members at this time.

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

‘Skin black as cole’

Chief surgeon Dr. Cagatay Demirci told me then that he never believed they would be able to save her. She was so badly injured; her burns were so deep and she was so young that the challenges seemed insurmountable.

Her skin was “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 wouldn’t survive the night,” he said at the time.

“But when we came back in the morning, she was still there, she was still alive. And we thought, OK, this baby wants to live.”

And as she continued to perform every complex operation – and there were many – she confused everyone. They called her the ‘miracle baby’.

But surgeons were unable to save her fingers and had to amputate all her fingers. Her face was terribly burned and the flames ate her eyelids, lips, hair, ears, hair follicles and feet.

Dr. Demirci then said, “She will need many, many surgeries throughout her childhood as she grows and develops.”

Sky’s reporting on her astonishing survival was noticed by a single mother in Britain, who was so moved by Dalal’s story of tragedy and endurance that she set up a JustGiving page.

Within weeks, Lisa Cavey saw that tens of thousands of pounds had been raised, helping to pay for a whole new life for Dalal’s family.

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

When it became clear that her survival depended on leaving the Syrian battlefield and staying in Turkey to receive medical attention, the donations organized passports and funded the rest of the family.

Turkish authorities agreed to allow her heavily pregnant mother and four siblings to join her.

The money paid 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 has also helped with medical aid, as Dalal will likely need multiple surgeries for years to come.

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

“Being a mother myself, I realized that this could have been my daughter. They are the same age.

“I just felt it was so wrong that this had happened, and the family found themselves in this situation through no fault of their own. I felt compelled to take action.”

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

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

“To be an organization willing and able to tackle complex cases that require critical surgeries over the course of a child’s development,” Ms. Damon added.

‘What I’ve seen from my experiences in war zones is often that these children tend to fall through the cracks when it comes to accessing medical care, or don’t get the many surgeries they need, and if thus ultimately being relegated to a life in the shadows.

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

Brave Dalal ‘not accepted’

But the war in Gaza and the global economic downturn have depleted public finances and much of the aid to humanitarian groups.

Doctors believe Dalal will need several expensive operations and are investigating the possibility of creating fingers for her, perhaps by performing a complicated transplant of some of her toes to her hands.

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

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

“They are screaming in fear,” she says. “She is not accepted by society. That is a fact.” She says she struggles to get a school to admit Dalal for the same reason.

Dalal is astonishingly independent, shrugging off help while putting on socks herself with her stumps – and climbing up the kitchen door, positioning her severed arms to keep herself upright.

Each achievement is applauded by her family, but her now five siblings also tell us about the hours of frustration, tears and anger.

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

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