Patient Helps Doctor Who Saved Her Life Become a Citizen

Houston, TX (Law Firm Newswire) April 3, 2012 – Citizenship ceremonies happen all the time all over the country and every one of them is a special, emotional experience for the immigrants who become citizens of the United States.

Sometimes, those ceremonies can be special, emotional experiences for the immigration officers swearing in the new citizens.

An immigration officer in Tampa has just celebrated such an experience at a March ceremony when she presented citizenship papers to a neurosurgeon who saved her life last year.

Melissa Wingerd, a three-year veteran of immigration services, suffered a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed her the day after her daughter’s fifth birthday party. She was rushed to Tampa’s St. Joseph’s Hospital while the neurosurgeon on call happened to be Dr. Gabriel Gonzalez-Portillo.

Peruvian-born Gonzalez-Portillo performed emergency brain surgery on Wingerd that day. She still has some side effects from the surgery that repaired a vein that her burst in her head.

She told her story to the hundreds of new citizens gathered at the Tampa Convention Center.

Gonzalez-Portillo has lived in the United States for about 20 years.

“Stories like these are an example of why so many of us support legal immigration and want to make it easier for people to become American citizens,” said Houston immigration attorney Annie Banerjee.

Gonzalez-Portillo said he was happy and excited after a long road to citizenship. He left the ceremony at the convention center to go back to the hospital and perform more brain surgeries.

“It warms my heart to see people become citizens of the United States. There are more people just like Dr. Gonzalez-Portillo who will start companies, save lives and teach students once we reform our legal immigration laws,” Banerjee said.

Annie Banerjee is a Houston immigration lawyer specializing in helping people become United States citizens. The law offices assist in visas and other legal immigration requirements as well. To learn more, visit http://www.visatous.com.

Law Offices of Annie Banerjee
131 Brooks Street, Suite #300
Sugar Land, Texas 77478
Phone: (281) 242-9139

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