Sister Of Garden Grove Woman With Leukemia Cleared To Come To U.S.

GARDEN GROVE (CBSLA) — The sister, and a perfect stem cell match, of a Garden Grove fighting leukemia is finally being allowed to come to the U.S.

Helen Huynh, who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam, is in need of a stem cell transplant to live. Her sister is a rare, 100 percent match, but lives in Vietnam.

Her daughter, Yvonne Murray, says her aunt applied three times for a visa, and each application was denied because immigration officials were not satisfied she would return home to Vietnam.

Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Garden Grove, delivered the good news to the family by phone Wednesday night that an emergency application for a humanitarian parole was approved.

"It's such a miracle, because everything happened all at once," Murray told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO. Huynh's doctor says she is in a small window for a stem cell transplant because she is cancer free for the moment.

Murray is on her way to Vietnam to escort her aunt to the States for the procedure.