Oklahoma City native in Afghanistan leads effort to help attack victim

Kofa, an Oklahoma City native and graduate of the University of Oklahoma, works in Kabul, Afghanistan, with NATO's International Security Assistance Force. Kofa and her division work closely with the Afghan Ministry of Public Works.

Through her contacts at the ministry, she heard that Muzhgan Masoomi, a 22-year-old financial assistant of the ministry, was in a hospital there. Masoomi and her sister had been attacked with a large knife by a male cousin who was irate because she was working outside the home. Masoomi's sister escaped with minor wounds, but Masoomi was more seriously injured.

Kofa learned Masoomi wasn't faring well in the hospital, she said. So she arranged to have Masoomi transferred to an International Security Assistance Force hospital in the Kabul International Airport compound. The hospital is staffed by French doctors and other NATO medical personnel.

When Masoomi arrived at the hospital, Kofa said, she had a wound as long as a belt. Hospital staff had stuffed gauze in the wound to stop the bleeding, but doctors there considered it unlikely she would ever walk again.

Later, Kofa learned that Masoomi had undergone an operation at the first hospital that hadn't been completed. She likely would have died if she hadn't been transferred to the NATO hospital, Kofa said.