Cinh Hoih Nuam, her husband Tu Za Sing, and their three children had just arrived in the United States as refugees. Political and religious persecution had forced them to flee their native Burma to Malaysia and then to the U.S. They stepped off the plane and Cinh Hoih Nuam was rushed immediately to the hospital.
Cinh Hoi Nuam suffers from a kidney condition that requires dialysis three times a week, but during their travel she had not had treatment for days. They were greeted at the airport in their own language by Francis A Pau, a native of Burma and their case manager from Catholic Charities refugee and immigration services program. Catholic Charities had arranged for Medicare and transportation to Our Lady of Lourdes hospital.
Cinh Hoi Nuam’s first weeks in the United States were spent in daily hospital visits for dialysis. Doctors finally decided that the only option was open-heart surgery.
An exhausted Tu Za Sing had fallen asleep in the hospital on the night of the surgery. Needing permission to perform the emergency operation, hospital staff made a midnight call to Kaitlyn Muller, director of Catholic Charities’ refugee program. Muller worked through the night on behalf of Tu Za Sing and his family. The next morning she visited Cinh Hoi Nuam and her husband, and Muller saw a woman physically transformed.
“We see a lot of resurrection stories in our program,” Muller said. “This client physically shows how much the opportunity to receive good care, to live life to the fullest extent possible, helps change people’s lives for the better.”
When Cinh Hoih Nuam and her family arrived in the United States, they, like many refugee families, needed help meeting all of life’s basic needs. Catholic Charities found the family a place to live before they arrived and helped them pay their first three months of deposits. The refugee program helped the family pay for groceries and assisted them in applying for food stamps, helped Tu Za Sing find a job at a local international supermarket, provided transportation to and from the hospital, and helped the family’s three children begin school, in addition to obtaining their asylum status in the country and helping them navigate the immigration process.
It will be exactly one year on Sept. 23 since Cinh Hoi Nuam and her family stepped off the plane and into a new life in the United States. Tu Za Sing participates in English as a Second Language classes offered by Catholic Charities and enjoys his job, the family’s three children are doing well in elementary and high school, and Cinh Hoih Nuam does dialysis treatments three times a week with transportation arranged by the refugee program.
“We feel like we’re in our hometown. Before I came to the U.S. I thought, who will assist us? But Catholic Charities did the best thing for us,” said Tu Za Sing. “It’s like having our mom and dad here. Everything they’ve done is good for us.”