Denied a visa due to COVID restrictions, a Finnish physician awaits reunification with Pennsylvania family
By George Burburan
Alone, Dr. Lea Hyvarinen 81, of Helsinki, Finland, sits waiting. Her health failing, Hyvarinen is eager to hear the news that she can finally reunite with her family.
Thousands of miles away in Pennsylvania, her daughter Liisa Hyvarinen Temple, 53, of Harrisburg also waits. Her mom, who recently suffered a serious fall, requires the love and care only a family can provide.
“My mom needs to come home to Pennsylvania because she wants to be with her family while recuperating,” said Temple.
Hyvarinen though has another reason why being with family is important. The need to organize her lifetime collection of valuable scientific research stored in Pennsylvania. She has agreed to donate this work to the Eye Center at Hershey Medical/Penn State. Hyvarinen, though, is unable to complete her work.
As a result of the pandemic, our government has suspended Hyvarinen’s business visa and ability to visit the United States. Her hope was to circumvent this restriction through the granting of a National Interest Exception from the State Department, a request that was recently rejected for the third time.
As a scientist recognized as the world-renowned expert and pioneer of low vision testing in children, Hyvarinen has difficulty understanding why the State Department has refused her request.
“I am fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and there are zero cases of COVID in the home where I am staying,” said Hyvarinen. Finland is also one of the countries least impacted by COVID-19, having suffered less than 1,000 deaths. Other prominent scientists and American government officials agree with Hyvarinen and appear baffled by the State Department’s refusal to grant her an exception.
“Her legacy and teaching impacts current and future vision professionals around the world,” said Dr. Michael Chiang, Director of the National Eye Institute. Chiang should know. As the head of the National Institute of Health National Eye Institute, the United States government agency tasked with securing our nation’s vision health, Chiang is familiar with the importance of. Hyvarinen’s lifetime of work.
Chiang is one of the many vision professionals who have signed a petition urging the U. S. State Department to grant Hyvarinen a National Interest Exception which would allow her to circumvent the current restrictions on travel from Europe. The petition drive was organized by her daughter in Pennsylvania.
“At age 81, she recently suffered a broken shoulder because of a fall. She needs help bathing, cooking, and most importantly administering eye drops which are of critical importance to maintaining her sight,” said Temple.
Temple is especially concerned that the assisted living facility in Finland, where her mom is residing, has been remiss in administering the eye drops. She is hopeful that the upcoming meeting between President Biden with leaders of the G-7 and European Union might produce positive results which would enable her mom to return to the United States. Her hopes have been bolstered by the rapidly declining COVID infection rates throughout the European Union member countries.
While disappointed with the news of her latest rejection, Hyvarinen remains optimistic for the future and looks forward to achieving her goal of donating her life’s work to future generations.
“I want to organize my scientific papers myself. They are in multiple languages, and I want to go through them before they are donated to help train the next generation of pediatric vision professionals,” Hyvarinen said.
The importance of Hyvarinen’s work is echoed by John Brabyn PhD of the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute. Hyvarinen has done important collaborations with this world-renowned research center in the past. While Hyvarinen is well known for her work with eyesight, Brabyn spoke about her extensive research in hearing.
“She developed, for the first time, practical protocols for ophthalmologists to use when examining patients who also have severe hearing impairments,” Brabyn said.
What makes Hyvarinen work valuable is the approach she developed which utilizes symbols rather than letters of the alphabet to measure factors relating to visual acuity in young children. The testing features she developed enable the medical profession to measure vision more accurately in children at a much earlier age. By doing so educators can have a head start and better tailor academic programs sooner that best suit the needs of the child.
The wide range of low vision testing products sold under the trademark Lea Test Products are available to medical professionals through her Pennsylvania sales center. First developed back in 1976 while Hyvarinen was serving as a fellow at the Wilmer Eye Institute of John Hopkins Hospital, they are sold in over 140 countries in nine different languages.
There is some good news on the horizon for Hyvarinen. The White House announced, on June 8th, that they will be launching working groups composed of members from various government agencies to work with the European Union for the purpose of allowing citizens of those nations to travel to the United States once again.
Hyvarinen has, over the last 50 years, lectured extensively throughout the United States and innumerable countries worldwide. Her last visit here was back in 2018, and she is hoping to make just one more trip to visit family.
And finish her work.
