Five-year-old Sebastian Jimenez Pina of Peru arrived in the United States two days before Christmas after last-minute arrangements were made to bring the boy to Schneider Children’s Hospital in New Hyde Park, NY, where he underwent brain surgery on Dec. 27 to remove a large tumor. Sebastian was released from the hospital over the weekend and is temporarily residing with his parents, Enrique Jimenez and Wendy Pina, at the home of relatives on Long Island before beginning the next stage of his cancer treatment. At a news conference on Wednesday, Sebastian and his parents thanked physicians Mark Mittler, MD, left, and Mark Atlas, MD, shown holding the boy, and U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, who intervened with the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, and convinced officials there to stay open several hours past closing time on Friday, Dec. 21, so they could prepare the visas that the family needed to travel to the United States.
