Sione Vaiomo'unga faces uncertain future [1]
Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 21:41. Updated on Friday, December 22, 2017 - 06:12.
Sione Vaiomo’unga’s three-years long fight for his life, undergoing kidney dialysis in Romania, becomes critical when his visa expires in three months time, and the former rugby player has to leave the country.
Returning to Tonga is a "death sentence" for Sione, said his wife Sala. She told London's Daily Telegraph that the family hope it will not happen because Sione has a kidney failure and there is no dialysis machine in Tonga.
Sione, a Tongan professional Rugby Player signed a three-year contract in 2014 with Baia Marein in northern Romania. It was Sione’s first Rugby Contract as a professional player. Unfortunately, he played only two seasons for the club before it was discovered that he had a kidney failure.
The two treatments available to Sione for his kidney failure, were to either to find a kidney donor or spend three nights a week hooked up to a dialysis machine from 9pm to 2am.
So far, apparently there have been three offers of a kidney, but unfortunately with Sione being an A+ blood type it would be very hard to find a match in the part of the world where he is living.
The obvious solution of course is for Sione to return home to Tonga, but Sione’s wife Sala said that option was a “Death Sentence”, because Tonga has no dialysis machine.
An alternative is to try and get a visa to New Zealand or Australia, but to enter those countries to be able to have access to a dialysis machine appears to be a very difficult option for a Tongan national.
So far it appears that the most viable option is for Sione, his wife Sala and their two children, 10 months old Sione junior, and three months old Jesyda to apply for a new visa to remain in Romania. There is a conviction that such a move will be well supported by Sione’s doctors.
Sione (28), remained optimistic that for him being in Romania has saved his life, because if he had stayed in Tonga he would have been dead.
Sione's three years rugby contract has expired and the club has evicted him from the hotel wherehe was staying. Sione and his family depend on handouts from distant family members, a friendly doctor at the hosptal and members of the local branch of Jehovah's Witnesses.
After Sione's plight was highlighted in a British newspaper article this week, the Pacific Rugby Players Welfare have launched a program to raise 20,000 Pounds “to help fund multiple residency status applications and cost of living for Sione Vaiomo’unga and his family”. Within 24 hours of the Daily Telegraph publishing the story written by Daiel Schofield, readers had donated more than 12,000 pounds to help Sione and his family extend their visa to stay in Romania.
Vava'u
Sione is from Tefisi, Vava’u and his wife Sala is from Matahau, Tongatapu. Sione's parents, Kaufusi and Sinaitakala Vaiomo’unga told Matangi Tonga yesterday that they regularly contacted Sione and his family, but they are hopeful for a positive solution for Sione’s health problem. Sione is the second of their four children. They have another son who is living in Australia.
Sione became an international rugby player for Tonga when he was selected as the only local player to be a member of the ‘Ikale Tahi team for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
In a warm-up fixture between the ‘Ikale Tahi and Romania in Bucharest on 5 September 2015, before Tonga played its opening 2015 World Cup fixture against Georgia, the Tonga and the Romanian rugby unions donated 10,000 euros earned from the game for Sione and his family.
Mana ‘Otai, the Head Coach of the ‘Ikale Tahi in 2015 said that Sione would have been in the team for the rugby World Cup if it wasn’t for his illness, “because that’s the player that he is and showed at the last World Cup.”