Dying Leukemia Victim May Get to Tell Mother Farewell : Immigrant: Man is clinging to life in the hope his parent may be allowed to come from native El Salvador.

An Orange County man with leukemia, who has been hanging onto life in the hope of seeing his mother from El Salvador to say goodby, on Friday received the first news that the farewell may happen.

After months of frustration and rejection by immigration officials, friends who sought a visa for the leukemia victim’s mother received word that an emergency visa had been tentatively approved.

An elated Fernando Pedrosa, 25, said from his hospital bed: “Is it true? Is it true? Oh, I can’t believe it. I’m so happy.”

Dr. Paul Coluzzi, one of Pedrosa’s doctors, said: “Physiologically and medically, he probably should have died a long time ago, but spiritually, he’s holding on. There’s a good chance that he’s going to hang on for his mom.”

For more than a month, friends and social workers have worked to reunite Pedrosa with his mother, after she was denied a visa by the U.S. State Department last November. The denial was based in part on the fact that she did not have sufficient assets to ensure her return to El Salvador, said Rico Cabrera, spokesman for the Los Angeles district of INS.

But on Friday, local INS officials recommended approval of a 60-day visa for Adela Lopez and sent that recommendation to the INS’s Office of International Affairs in Washington.

Officials said Pedrosa could learn as early as Tuesday if the request has been approved.

Fernando Pedrosa came to the United States about 3 1/2 years ago and went to work in a Costa Mesa auto body shop to earn money for his family in El Salvador.

He was found to have leukemia about a year ago and underwent chemotherapy at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. Since January, he has been at Flagship Health Care.

Workers from Community Hospice Care, which serves dying patients, said they have tried for six weeks to get information and applications from INS about visa alternatives. Sandy Dunn, a Hospice Care worker, said she made numerous calls to both the local and national INS offices, but received little information.

Local INS officials, however, said they were not aware of Pedrosa’s situation until several days ago.

The delay will continue for a few more days, since the paperwork was completed late Friday when offices in Washington were closing.

Once the request is approved, friends and family must still contact Lopez, who lives about eight hours from the nearest phone in the small village of Amatio near the Honduras border.

But a family friend has agreed to personally escort Lopez to her son, and others have given both financial and emotional support, Dunn said.

When doctors determined that Pedrosa was terminally ill, his cousin Isaias Lopez offered to pay his way back to El Salvador. But Pedrosa was too sick to endure the flight.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), who was at the INS office in Westminster Friday to raise concern about illegal immigration cases like Pedrosa’s, said Pedrosa “should have been sent home. I would rather have him go home and die than to stay and die and take funds. We can’t afford to provide this kind of service.”

Rohrabacher said Pedrosa’s medical costs have amounted to $250,000 of taxpayer’s money and such spending should be stopped. Coluzzi could not confirm the exact cost of Pedrosa’s expenses but said they probably are within that range.

Pedrosa was able to save the price of several plane tickets, both for his mother and for his body to be returned to El Salvador.

“When Fernando first came here, he said that America’s great because you can earn a lot of money, help the family and go back and live a little better,” said Isaias Lopez, Pedrosa’s cousin who filed the petition on his behalf. “He wants to see her. I pray to God that (the request) goes through.”