WESTMINSTER : Mother of Comatose Boy to Arrive in U.S.

The mother of a teen-age football player who has been in a coma for nearly two months will be allowed to leave Vietnam in November to see her son.

Kiet Le, 16, has been in a coma at UCI Medical Center in Orange since Sept. 8 after collapsing during a junior varsity football game. A popular sophomore at La Quinta High School in Westminster, Kiet has been getting a flood of get-well letters from classmates, who have raised several thousand dollars for a scholarship fund in his name.

Kiet’s sister, Pauline Le, said their mother should be able to leave Vietnam in the middle of November. The delay for the mother’s arrival in the United States was caused by medical treatment for her tuberculosis, she said.

The Le family, school officials and Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) have been trying to get Kiet’s mother and his brothers out of Vietnam since the youth lapsed into the coma.

Kiet’s brothers will leave Vietnam on Wednesday and are expected to enter the United States sooner than their mother, Le said.

Kiet Le’s condition is stable and has improved slightly, a hospital spokeswoman said. He had been on a respirator but is now breathing on his own.