GIRL, FATHER TO RETURN TO LEBANON: 7-YEAR-OLD MARINEH IS EAGER TO SEE HER MOM, BUT SHE STILL CAN’T WALK
by Doug Hoagland, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

The Fresno Bee (California)
May 22, 2006 Monday

A 7-year-old girl from Lebanon who came to Fresno to get medical care
that might help her walk is going home still crippled.

Marineh Damirjian and her father were scheduled to fly to Beirut,
Lebanon, today after 5 1/2 months in the Valley.

Marineh got caught in a struggle between her parents and the U.S.
government over a visitor’s visa for her mother, who was unable to
join her husband and only child. Marineh’s father refused to make
decisions about her care without his wife in Fresno.

Local officials tried to help the family and had contacted the U.S.
Embassy in Beirut. The mother was scheduled to talk with embassy
officials Tuesday about a visitor’s visa. But with no guarantee she
would get it, and with the father’s and daughter’s visas running out
in early June, the father said they were leaving.

“Of course I am sad,” Marineh’s father, Hagop Damirjian, said in
Armenian. “We have to leave it in God’s hands. My conscience is
relaxed. Whatever God wants to do, let him do it.”

Marineh said in Armenian she was looking forward to sitting in her
mother’s lap again: “I am going to hug my mother.”

The girl and her parents are Armenians with Lebanese citizenship.

The Bee profiled Marineh two weeks ago.

She suffers from progressive muscle tightness in her legs and tendon
problems in her feet.

A spinal abnormality is likely the cause, and she must crawl, be
carried or use a wheelchair to get around.

Hagop Damirjian says doctors in Lebanon suggested seeking medical
treatment in the United States. American officials would give only
one of Marineh’s parents a visitor’s visa, which the parents decided
the father would use because he could more easily lift the child.

Hagop Damirjian says embassy officials didn’t explain why the parents
got only one visa. Some people use visitor’s visas to immigrate
illegally, but Damirjian, who has extended family and a job in Lebanon,
said he wasn’t trying to do that.

He brought Marineh to Fresno because his uncle, Manuel Damirjian,
lives here. Marineh might have had surgery on her spine, legs and
feet at Children’s Hospital Central California. One of her doctors,
Dr. Steven Ehrreich, wrote embassy officials that Marineh would
benefit psychologically if her mother came to Fresno.

Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, called embassy officials on
Marineh’s behalf.

Zakar Bedoyan of Fresno, a family friend, cried tears of frustration
as Marineh prepared to head home. “Just because of a little visa,
we can’t help her and get her on her feet,” Bedoyan said.

Hagop Damirjian said he was grateful for all that people did: “When
I came here, I didn’t have anybody, just my uncle. But I have all of
Fresno helping me, and they’re all my friends. I’ll never forget what
they do for me.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress