Deanne Fitzmaurice

On October 10, 2003, as he walked home from school, a 9-year-old Iraqi boy named Saleh Khalaf picked up something on the roadside that looked to him like a toy ball. Seconds later it exploded, ripping open his abdomen, tearing off his hands, blowing out his left eye, and mortally wounding his older brother.
“Lionheart: The Story of Saleh” documents this courageous Iraqi boy’s life, spanning 20 years between the event that forever altered the course of his life and his present-day struggles and joys.
Days after the accident, Saleh’s father, Raheem, persuaded doctors at a U.S. Air Force base in Iraq to perform emergency surgery to keep his son alive. It marked the beginning of an international mercy mission to save the boy whose indomitable spirit earned him the nickname Lion Heart. The mission would take Saleh and Raheem to the Children’s Hospital in Oakland, California, for treatment. After many months and dozens of operations, Saleh’s condition began to improve, but his heart was still heavy. He prayed that he would one day be reunited with his mother, Hadia, and his younger siblings back in Iraq. Raheem and Saleh were granted asylum, and soon afterward their family received permission to join them in the United States. In December 2004, Hadia and the children left Iraq and made the arduous journey to Oakland to begin a new life there.