MARIETTA - After more surgeries than years he's lived, 8-year-old Mohammad Mustafa is preparing to return home to Iraq this summer, when a leg-lengthening device is removed from his left leg.

In 2009, Mohammad came to Marietta with the aid of several Americans for leg-lengthening surgery. Mohammad had already undergone 12 surgeries on his leg, which was stunted since age 3 as a result of a bone infection that made his left leg 4 inches shorter than his right one. It has now grown 3 inches.

After undergoing two surgeries last year, Mohammad's surgeon said the boy is nearly ready to remove the external fixator device on his leg that has kept it stabilized and in alignment. The final outpatient procedure is expected to happen in June at WellStar Kennestone Hospital.

After that, he and his father can return to Mohammad's mother and three older brothers who remain in their two-room house in Erbil, Iraq, which is in the Kurdistan region.

"This child came over here after 12 surgeries; hadn't healed, been infected, couldn't really walk very much at all. He could kind of limp around and hop, but that's about it," said Dr. William Terrell of Marietta's Pinnacle Orthopedics, who performed the delicate surgery.

"Can you imagine being his mom, standing there at the airplane and he walks off that plane when he gets to Iraq?"

Since the surgery in June, Mohammad and his father, Abdulqadr Mustafa, have been living in an apartment in Woodstock. Mohammad is now attending the second grade at Little River Elementary School on Trickum Road in Woodstock. First Baptist Church of Woodstock has provided them with assistance during their stay.

Mohammad and his father have also taken English lessons at First Baptist and been involved in other church-related activities. Abdulqadr said his son has made friends at their apartment complex and at school.

"He is very happy," Abdulqadr said. "He is going to school. Everyone is helping."

Most importantly, Mohammad is able to walk on his own and can even run around with his new friends. Many unnamed people have been instrumental in making Mohammad's dream to one day play soccer with his older brothers a remote possibility. But much credit goes to Dr. Goodman Espy of Marietta's ObGyn Associates.

"I have visited frequently and taken walks with them. He is just the most intent little man," said Espy of Mohammad. "The reason the surgery has been so successful is he and his father have been so compliant. They have done any and everything they've been asked to do."

Espy was in Iraq, performing humanitarian work when Heather Mercer, an American missionary who lives in Iraq, contacted him about Mohammad. Espy insisted that Mercer not let doctors remove the boy's leg. Eventually, he came into contact with Terrell who agreed to do the surgery.

The first surgery performed on Mohammad in June was to place the fixator on his leg. The second surgery in October was to relocate the pins and wires on the fixator to stretch the bone.

The entire procedure is called the Ilizarov technique, named after Russian orthopedic surgeon, Gavril Abramovich Ilizarov, who invented it in the 1950s. Terrell is one of only about 15 doctors in the U.S. who are trained to perform it.

During the initial procedure, the bone in Mohammad's leg was broken in half and the fixator was surgically attached to it. As the healing bone grows back together, the nuts on the fixator have been turned a millimeter a day. The incremental adjustments move the two halves of the bone slightly apart as it heals, which lengthens the leg over time.

"This fixator that fits on the outside of the body, you adjust it a millimeter a day - which is about a pencil dot," explained Terrell. "But, if you adjust it everyday, that's an inch a month. So he and his dad adjusted the fixator every day, for two-and-a-half to three months, and he lengthened his leg 2.5 inches."

"That's incredible," Terrell continued.

"An orthodontist puts braces on your teeth and moves your teeth about one or two millimeters in two years. His leg got 2.5 inches longer in two-and-a-half months. I just think that's amazing. It fascinated me 10 years ago and it still fascinates me now."

Mohammad - who stands 4-feet tall - currently wears a shoe buildup on his left foot. He has gone through three pairs of the special shoes because of how active he is. That amazes Terrell, who is also stunned that Mohammad has gone without pain medication since one week after his first surgery.

Mohammad should be able to walk relatively normally as an adult. However, in two years he will need to return to the U.S. to undergo more limb lengthening, Terrell said.

"The leg can grow, but because of all his previous surgeries and infections it's kind of stunted," Terrell said. "So it's going to grow slower than the other leg."

That seems to be O.K. with Mohammad, who enjoys walking whenever he can. Though his constant smile says it without words, Mohammad managed to utter in English what he wishes to tell those who've helped him thus far: "Thank you," he said.