By Joe Williams . Daily News Staff Writer. Daily News Online. Saturday, September 02, 2000
A cancer-stricken New Jersey man's hope for survival was restored yesterday after his sister in Cuba won her battle to come to the U.S. to donate bone marrow.
"When he heard the news, he just said, 'Finally. Thank God,'" Elena Rodriguez, wife of ailing Raul Coello, 49, said last night from their Paramus home. She said her husband was resting after being discharged yesterday from Englewood Hospital but was "very happy."
For weeks, State Department bureaucrats denied Reina Coello's request to travel here to donate her bone marrow to her brother.
She finally got the green light to fly to New Jersey, thanks to two public officials who took up her cause after reading about her plight in the Daily News.
"Her nonimmigrant visa was approved Friday morning," said Eric Shuffler, chief of staff to Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.).
Rodriguez said her husband had been unable to reach his sister after hearing the news but that he hoped to speak with her Monday.
Torricelli and Rep. Marge Roukema (R-N.J.) intervened on Raul Coello's behalf, urging the U.S. consulate general in Cuba to reconsider to decision to deny the visa.
The bone marrow transplant will be performed at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. Coello, who came to the U.S. in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift, was diagnosed with acute lymphomatoid leukemia two years ago.
Initial treatments sent the disease into remission, but it recurred last year.
Doctors said Coello had a three-month window of opportunity for the bone-marrow transplant.
Cuban officials had complained the visa denial was motivated out of concerns that Coello's sister, who lives in Camaguey, Cuba, would defect.
State Department officials were not available to comment yesterday. However, Torricelli's office was notified of the change of heart yesterday morning.
"We're extremely grateful that the family will be able to brought together for the transplant," Shuffler said. | 