An army sergeant from Tarrytown is giving the gift of life to three Iraqi children.

Army Sergeant MaryKay Satryano is helping three Iraqi children with holes in their heart receive life-saving surgery. It was all made possible through the ?Gift of Life? program. The program is designed to help children with congenital heart disease get surgery in the United States. One of the children has already successfully undergone surgery. The other two children will be operated on in the next few days. Making the trip to America was almost as challenging as the surgery for the children and their families. They rode a bus for 12 hours from Baghdad to Jordan, on a road that is constantly getting bombed.

The procedures are all being done at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. The families will return to Iraq in four to six weeks. Officials say about 1,500 children in Iraq need life-saving heart surgery, but may never get it.