Kenyan mother approved for temporary visa to visit son on life support in Winnipeg hospital
CBC
An international student is on life support, and his mother overseas has been granted approval by the federal government to come see her son after previously being denied.
Kenyan Lilian Ndiego applied for a single-entry temporary resident visa to travel to Winnipeg to see her 25-year-old son Tevin Obiga, who is intensive care at St. Boniface Hospital, and her second application was approved Monday.
"I'm excited and I'm very grateful," Ndiego said Monday morning on Information Radio.
"I'm looking forward to go and see my son, and to give him moral support."
Since receiving the good news, Ndiego took a polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 test in Nairobi, and as long as the result is negative she expects to leave Kenya on Tuesday evening.
"Maybe someone somewhere didn't know the gravity of the situation — until now, maybe," said George Obiga, Ndiego's brother.
A statement from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada on Monday evening confirmed Ndiego's visa had been approved after "additional information" was provided in the second application.
She previously applied for the visa but was denied by the High Commission of Canada in Kenya on Feb. 15.
Her application was denied despite the Kenya High Commission in Ottawa pleading with its counterpart in Kenya to allow Ndiego to come to Canada in a letter dated Feb. 4.
In a previous interview Friday, Ndiego said she expected Canada would approve her application so she could come see her son, who has been diagnosed with blastomycosis, a fungal infection that affects the lungs.
"I was disappointed because what they wrote they were telling me that most Kenyans who go to Canada they don't come back," said Ndiego, who admitted to having so many sleepless nights the past five weeks.
Tevin was in his fourth year of computer engineering studies at the University of Manitoba when he fell ill and was admitted to the hospital on Jan. 13. Doctors performed a medical procedure on him two days later, but he never woke up.
On Jan. 19, he had to be moved to the intensive care ward where he remains hooked up to several machines, including a lung bypass machine.
George wanted to provide support for his nephew, so he flew to Winnipeg to see him before returning to Nairobi just over two weeks ago.
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