During the battle of Mosul last year, 17-year-old Rahab was thought to be dead. Her family’s concrete home, where she had been, collapsed during an attack. Her parents, who both suffered injuries, were able to escape to safety as ISIS soldiers shot at them.

They feared that Rahab was dead.

At the pleading of her parents, a team of Iraqi soldiers and members of the Free Burma Rangers, a non-governmental organization that helps civilians caught in war zones, went looking for her, but it took them two days before they could fight into her neighborhood, pushing back ISIS soldiers long enough to check the house. It was completely demolished.

However, part of the team spotted a sign of life – and heard Rahab. That was a miracle in and of itself. David Eubank, the founder of the Free Burma Rangers, thanked God for the good news and prayed that she could make it another day until they could round up the resources to mount a rescue.

Iraqi army officials and Eubank came up with a rescue plan, bringing in troops and armored vehicles to fend off ISIS while Iraqi firefighters cut the concrete and pulled Rahab from the wreckage.

It worked, and she was quickly pulled out and carried to a Free Burma Ranger ambulance.

Her leg was crushed, and doctors eventually had to remove a kneecap. This past week, she was able to make her way into a hospital in Erbil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq to see a pair of American orthopedic surgeons, arranged by Tim Hayes, a Springfield, Missouri, attorney and U.S. Army veteran who volunteers with the Free Burma Rangers.

Drs. Paul Frewin and Kip Parsons, both of Springfield, checked out Rehab and her parents and advised them on moving forward. For Rahab and her parents, their health has improved. Rahab can walk. Her mother, who has scarring on her neck, received a new cream to help, and Hayes is connecting her with a surgeon who can do a procedure to ease the effects of the scarring, which has hampered her movement.

The bigger question for Rahab’s family is the future for them and their city. There are emotional scars as well as physical ones.

Describing the strike that caused her parents’ home to collapse, Rahab said it happened so quickly. The family was pinned in the house by the ground fighting when they think an air attack destroyed their home.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I just ended up under the concrete.”

Rahab would like to be a doctor, but she doesn’t have much hope at this point. Her father, an electrician, is out of work. Both she and her parents are healing from their injuries.

She and her parents were grateful for the Free Burma Rangers who helped save her and arranged for the follow-up medical care, something they don’t have easy access to in Kurdistan. It was no cost to the family. After receiving care, they went back to Mosul, a city that has been devastated by the fighting.

Now, here father says, they hope to rebuild.

“We just want to live in peace,” her father said. “We hope for good jobs and a peaceful life. Now, it’s a difficult life that we hope will change.”