Three-year-old Mohammed El Buhaisis tore through hospital corridors with an empty stroller, eagerly grabbed up children's books in the library and pointed excitedly at pictures of lions and monkeys.
When his mother asked him if he was tired, Mohammed answered sharply, "La," Arabic for "no."
The life-saving heart surgery that doctors volunteered to perform last week seemed a distant memory for the Palestinian boy, who arrived at Children's Hospital of Austin earlier this month with a bluish pallor, swollen fingers and chronic fatigue. He suffered from a congenital heart defect called tetralogy of fallot, which hinders oxygenation of the blood.
HeartGift, a nonprofit organization founded in 2000 by Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons in Austin, coordinates surgeries for children from outside the United States. Mohammed is the fourth child doctors have treated this year and the sixth since the program started.
Cardiac surgeon Ken Fox, who performed the three-hour surgery, is one of many doctors who donate their time for HeartGift.
"The entire community is involved," he said. "It's very heartwarming."
The Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, a U.S.-based organization, helped arrange Mohammed's trip and contacted Pflugerville residents Elva and Nasser Hage-Mahmoud, who had volunteered to be a host family.
Nasser Hage-Mahmoud, who was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon, affectionately called Mohammed "habibi," a term of endearment, and said he considered the boy part of his family.
"As an American Palestinian, I feel really very attached to him," he said.
Most children with Mohammed's condition do not live past their teenage years, said Steve Metcalf, an anesthesiologist who volunteered for the surgery.
There was no hospital in their northern Gaza Strip village of Deir Al Belah and little hope that the ailing Mohammed, the fourth of five children, would receive the kind of advanced medical care required to save his life, said his mother, Amira El Buhaisis.
"Sometimes I had to wait at a checkpoint for six to seven hours," she said in Arabic. "Sometimes they didn't let me pass through."
Stories such as Mohammed's are what inspire volunteers to try to broaden HeartGift's reach, said Chip Oswald, the group's founder and president of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons.
"We're hoping that this is going to grow long range so it will be a statewide deal," he said.
But money is a major challenge, Oswald added.
Each surgery usually costs between $15,000 and $20,000.
HeartGift covers hospital expenses through donations from doctors, pharmaceutical groups and the public. The group also relies on religious congregations to donate food and clothing to patients and to help find host families who speak the same language.
Three-year-old Mohammed El Buhaisis tore through hospital corridors with an empty stroller, eagerly grabbed up children's books in the library and pointed excitedly at pictures of lions and monkeys.