Lesbian Couple Faces Deportation As Son Fights For Life

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NEW YORK (CBS 2) — Omar Audi is a typical nine-year-old, except that he’s battling a deadly disease – and soon, he may be forced to do it alone.

Omar’s parents are being kicked out of the country, and away from the only place their son can be treated.

Now, they must make an impossible choice: leave their son alone, or take him home, they say, to die.

Every day presents a terrifying unknown for Omar and his parents, and they are desperate.

Omar, a Lebanese national, has a rare disease called hereditary andioedema. The illness causes painful swelling inside and outside his body, swelling so severe that it could kill him.

Omar was diagnosed with the disease in 2007, when he fell ill during a visit to New York from Lebanon.

Nevermind.

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@dyslexia,

dyslexia wrote:

Now, they must make an impossible choice: leave their son alone, or take him home, they say, to die.

What's so impossible about this choice? Clearly, if they care for their son, they'll make sure that he gets the treatment. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

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@joefromchicago,

I agree that of the two options that's the better one. But that's a pretty horrible choice. The kid's nine -- that's still a kid. It would be absolutely excruciating for me to leave my 10-year-old in another country with, it sounds like, no particular plans of seeing her again. While she's fighting for her life. Ooof.

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@sozobe,

More info:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/deportation_could_kill_ailing_kid_ZdMnQHtiopvXgbFXKRilJO

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@sozobe,

(One thing I don't get after reading that article -- if the condition and the medicine that keeps the condition in check have both been identified, is there no way for the family to get the medicine from Lebanon? It seems like a family member could be trained to give the injections if nobody else will.)

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@sozobe,

sozobe wrote:

I agree that of the two options that's the better one. But that's a pretty horrible choice.

No doubt.

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@sozobe,

Even if the drug is available outside of the US, I imagine the cost (outside of a clinical protocol) is exorbitant.

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Lesbian couple?

From soz's link:

Quote:

Tafran and her husband, Rawi Audi, who owned a childrens clothing store in Lebanon, came to visit relatives in New York in 2007 and said they stayed only because of Omar. After their visas expired, immigration officials tracked them down in Queens in 2008 and took their passports. They have been fighting to remain in the U.S. since.

Audi works as a restaurant deliveryman to support the family, which now includes 16-month-old twins, Adam and Bilal. They are crammed into in a one-bedroom Astoria apartment with Audi's mother.

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@JPB,

Lesbians. Lebanese. I always get those two confused myself -- to my regret.

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Lesbian Couple Faces Deportation As Son Fights For Life

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