I have been debating all day about posting anything on Facebook about the situation at my house, but I have decided to get support of my friends I will, for now, post to my friends and family. I may at some point turn to the media for more support, but please read all of this... please comment your thoughts and feelings, and please just pray for this situation. Thanks everyone...............................................................................................................................Duyen Nguyen Duyen is an exchange student. She came here a month or so ago. We fell in love with this sweet girl from day one. She is always trying to please everyone and always studying. She wants to learn. She wants to study, to take SAT tests, to apply to Universities in the states, and to follow her dream of getting a college degree with something to do with numbers. Duyen loves school. She is attending Mancelona High school right now. But she may not be allowed to stay there. She has a visa and a passport. She is here legally from Vietnam, she joined an exchange student program with a company called CCI Greenheart. Through CCI she signed a contract for 10 months of school and insurance and food and a place to live. Her parents paid $11,200 for this opportunity for her. Shortly after school started Duyen wanted to join the cross country team at school so we set up an exam for the sports physical clearance. Duyen was not able to pass it. The nurse at the clinic referred her to a clinic and from there she was referred to see a doctor from the University Of Michigan. During all of this some tests were done and it was discovered that Duyen has a hole in her heart. This needs to be fixed. She has always had the hole, but she never knew it. As a baby and a young child Duyen was healthy. She was never told she had a heart murmur or any problems. Duyen passed a physical exam in her home country before she came to the US. She has proof she had no issues before. The doctor at U of M wants to do an MRI of her heart, check the health of other arteries and veins around her heart to see if the repair can be made with a heart cath procedure or if she will need surgery to correct it. Once that is done, Duyen needs to have this fixed. She is beginning to have symptoms that mean she will need it done soon. These symptoms include pain in her chest when she exercises and some tiredness. She shows these signs when she is stressed. Now, the company that sent her here and claims to provide her with a home, food, school to attend and insurance wants to send her home because she has a condition that was preexisting. Yes, it was, however since she did not know about that how could she tell them? It’s simple, she could not. She simply did not know. How that is possible is simply because she never showed signs of any issues, and testing was never done. She is a teenager; this is not routine testing for any one that age, and most assuredly not in Vietnam. So, right now we are stuck trying to decide what to do next. If CCI kicks her out of their program she will lose her visa to be here. If she loses her visa they will send her home, with a broken heart (in more ways than one) and without her education she worked so hard to get. Right now we are told we can apply to change her visa to another type, but each type has consequences. We can change her visa that is now a J-1 visa to a F-1 visa. The J1 means she is an exchange student sponsored by a company in the US. An F1 student visa means she would have to pay tuition and attend a school from a list of approved schools. The school she is attending now is not approved by the US government (it is a public school). So, she would lose the $11,100 her parents paid to CCI and have to pay approximately another $10,000 in tuition. AND change schools. We could change her visa to a medical one, but that would mean that she has to wait for her parents to apply for a visa as well and at least one of them to come here and she would not be allowed to attend school in the US. If CCI ends her connection to them and her new visa is not approved in time she could be someplace in between visas and leave her illegal for a short time… which could cause problems in other ways. Now the question has come up as to why would I help this girl? Well, first it’s so wrong to do this to a child, an American child or one from Vietnam, it’s morally wrong. I feel we need to set an example for our children and this is a poor one to set. I want to scream to all who will listen that this is wrong. We are the country who will stick up for countries being bullied, we will go to other countries and figtht for their civil rights, but this girl is here, came here legally for one thing, to study, and yet we are making it so hard for her she cries instead of studies. She spends time researching things about visas and law instead of studying math or history. She stresses herself out and she has a heart condition! We as a society need to be aware that what we do shows our young people how to behave, and this is not something I want MY children to behave like. Every day right now brings new changes and new information. Right now I wait on information from the doctors, the government and CCI themselves. CCI has said they will end her connection to them next week so our time to act is very short. It is very possible that Duyen will be in between visas for a time. I am not sure how this will play out, but I am asking for prayers and support for her, her family and friends in Vietnam and in the US. We all want her to succeed in following her dreams and get her medical needs met. I will update as I can. Thanks everyone!
Posted on: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 04:36:59 +0000
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