Guardsmen help girl.

Basira Jan is a little six-year-old girl from Afghanistan. Before last spring, she did not seem to be the picture of good health--she was very frail and weighed barely 35 pounds. Basira tired easily, and whenever she exerted herself, her skin took on a bluish tone.

Basira's father, Ghulam Ghaus, took his daughter to Camp Phoenix, the base where U.S. soldiers train Afghan army troops, to see if anything could be done to improve her health. The little girl was initially examined by Captain Michael Roscoe, a physician's assistant with the Indiana National Guard. Further examinations confirmed that Basira suffered from a congenital heart defect that prevented enough oxygen from reaching her body's tissues.

Captain Roscoe promised himself he would find help for the girl. "I wanted to make a difference, to make a little piece of the world better because we were there," Roscoe was quoted by AP as saying.

As with similar cases involving U.S. military personnel helping overseas children in need of medical care, the process that began with Captain Roscoe's concern for little Basira became quite involved. Permission had to be secured from various military and State Department offices, and doctors and hospitals had to be found who were willing to provide medical treatment free of charge.

In Basira's case, the Indianapolis chapter of Gift of Life International, Inc., a nonprofit group that works through Rotary Clubs, offered help. A Gift of Life spokesman noted that his group has arranged heart surgeries for more than 4,000 children from over 60 countries since 1974.

Basira received her needed heart surgery in September at Riley Hospital for Children, where the doctors donated their services. "She's been riding her bike like a mad woman. She's really doing quite good," Dr. Mark Turrentine, who performed the surgery, told reporters.

While recuperating, Basira and her father stayed at Ronald McDonald house, but the girl sometimes spent the night with a newfound American friend, Emily Fippen--the five-year-old daughter of Captain Steve Fippen, another Indiana guardsman responsible for her trip to America.

When the Indiana guardsmen returned home they were replaced in Afghanistan by National Guard troops from Florida. When informed of Basira's situation, the Florida Guardsmen also lent a hand, bringing food to Basira's mother and seven siblings. Among them is a sister who was paralyzed in a fall. Captain Fippen also worked to send a wheelchair home with Basira and her father when they returned last month.