Doctor Hits Snag in Life-Saving Mission

BANGKOK, Thailand — A Los Angeles doctor searching for a Vietnamese teen-ager’s brother or sister who could save the youth’s life with a bone marrow transplant arrived in Bangkok to pick up his Vietnamese visa, only to be told to “fill out the forms and wait.”

Dr. Valilious Berdoukas of Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles had been assured by the office of Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), working through the Australian Embassy and Vietnam’s U.N. representative, that the visa would be ready for him to pick up when the physician arrived in Bangkok on Sunday.

But the Vietnamese Embassy said it was neither informed of his mission nor prepared to immediately issue a travel visa to Vietnam.

Berdoukas hopes to find the brother or sister of Thoi Le, 16, who is dying of aplastic anemia, a bone marrow disease. If one of the siblings has the right antigens in the bone marrow, a transplant will be performed and the youth would have a 75% chance of survival, Berdoukas said Monday.