Here is a very interesting article about HCMC Consulate's rejection of a medical visa to an orphan child from Marcus Kabel, Associated Press Writer:

(excerpt)

...after successful adoptions and charity work, the Kargeses of Joplin and the Copes have run into an unexpected barrier to their joint effort to help a six-year-old Vietnamese orphan boy get urgent medical help in Missouri that he can't get in Vietnam.
The US government has refused to issue a medical visa or a humanitarian waiver for Tuan Van Cao, even though the Kargeses and the Copes have lined up private funding to cover all expenses to treat a botched operation on the boy's diseased left hip that left him with a potentially fatal bone infection.
Despite submitting written opinions from US and Vietnamese doctors that Tuan needs urgent help that he cannot get in Vietnam, the families have been told to try the lengthy processing of international adoption, which can take a year or more.

>>>Full story-http://www.asianreporter.com/stories/national/2006/10-vietorphan.htm

I see that the reason for denying the waiver was because they were 'trying to circumvent the red tape'... yes they were, because he's dying! He can't wait a year or two...

For god's sake, he's SIX... he's not going to do a runner! If they have an adult/s there ready to take him back to Vietnam after his surgery he's not going to be able to do anything to stop them.

What kind of world lets a child die over paperwork. This is incredibly sad.