A leukemia patient is dying because the U.S. won't give her sister—and stem cell donor match—a visa

[Dominus Atheos]

A cancer patient desperately needs a stem-cell transplant. But the U.S. won’t grant the donor a visa.


Helen Huynh and her family were devastated when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia this past February, one that required immediate chemotherapy until she could undergo a lifesaving stem cell transplant. Despite the grim news, there was a ray of light for the Garden Grove, California, grandmother of three: one of her three sisters in her native Vietnam was a perfect match.

But when Thuy Nguyen, Helen’s baby sister, interviewed with U.S. officials in Ho Chi Minh City, her visa was denied. Immigration officials claimed that because she had never traveled out of Vietnam before, they believed she wouldn’t return home after the transplant:

“Evidence may come in many forms, but when considered together, it must be enough for the interviewing officer to conclude that the applicant’s overall circumstances, including social, family, economic and other ties abroad, will compel him or her to leave the United States at the end of the temporary stay,” the letter stated.

“Regrettably, Ms. Nguyen was unable to establish to the satisfaction of the interviewing officer that her employment, financial and family situation in Vietnam constituted sufficient ties to compel her to depart the United States.”

But Helen’s family says that officials cut Thuy’s interview so short that she had no chance to show that she has a family and businesses that she must return to in Vietnam. “She’s not poor, but that’s the mentality that these interviewers have,” said Yvonne AiVan, Helen’s eldest. “If you are from a less developed country, you won’t leave.”

When Thuy tried to make her case in another request, immigration officials denied her again. And then a third time.

According to her family, Helen has not eaten on her own in weeks and is on morphine and “in and out of consciousness.” Now, the family has filed for humanitarian parole, “a Hail Mary petition for emergency entry into the country.”

"We have letters from the hospitals stating that she is a match and that she is coming to the U.S. to donate for the stem cell transplant,” Helen’s daughter Sharon said. But no one in the federal government is listening:

“This patient will benefit from a life-saving procedure utilizing stem cells,” a physician from the University of California at Irvine Medical Center wrote in an August letter. “For humanitarian reasons, we are requesting the patient’s sister . . . be granted a Temporary Visa to enter the United States so that she can assist in donating her stem cells to save our patient’s life.”

“This is a very urgent matter,” another doctor from City of Hope Medical Center added in a separate June letter. “Time is of the essence.”

Allowing Thuy into the country to save her sister’s life shouldn’t even be controversial, but in an administration as determined to dismantle Americans’ health care as it is to keep brown people out, Helen’s story is the result of a perfect storm of racism and sheer cruelty at the hands of the U.S. government.

For those who constantly rail on undocumented immigrants despite the fact that they have no line to get into, Helen came to the U.S. in 1991 “the right way,” immigrating with her husband Vien, who “fought alongside the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War.” All members of the family are U.S. citizens, including daughter Tiffany, born with Down syndrome. Helen is her primary caregiver, but now Helen is just trying to stay alive.

And, remember that in the case of Charlie Gard, a white English child, Donald Trump directly offered his support. Yvonne AiVan: "If we were an Italian-American or a Scottish-American, then our family member could just come on the plane and come here anytime. They could come and go to Disneyland if they wanted to.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9 ... tch-a-visa

[The Romulan Republic]

This is attempted murder, or at least manslaughter. If only it could be tried as such.

[Flagg]

Trump-Murder 2020!

[K. A. Pital]

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

...

Gotta keep these gates shut, Elysium prosperous, cherubim well-fed and the sword ever-turning and on fire.

[Flagg]

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

...

Gotta keep these gates shut, Elysium prosperous, cherubim well-fed and the sword ever-turning and on fire.

Make America Gangrenous Again!

[Dominus Atheos]

Media attention got them to relent:

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/9/2 ... transplant

Sister of leukemia patient finally allowed to come to U.S. for lifesaving stem cell transplant

Following immense public pressure, U.S. officials will finally allow the sister—and perfect stem cell donor match—of a California woman fighting leukemia to come to the United States for a lifesaving transplant.

U.S. officials had three times denied Thuy Nguyen permission to come to America to help save her sister’s life, despite multiple hospitals attesting that Helen Huynh’s cancer was aggressive and she had no time to spare. Officials callously believed Thuy wouldn’t return to Vietnam after the procedure.

Late Wednesday night, Congressman Alan Lowenthal called the family to let them know officials had relented and approved Thuy’s humanitarian parole, clearing the way for her arrival.

[Flagg]

That’s good news. I hope things work out. Goddamned crime it took the media raising hell to make it happen. If they hadn’t she would still be waiting for a donor match.

[The Romulan Republic]

Good news, not only for her family but for our country, since it shows that public opinion can still make a difference in peoples' lives.