SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 10: A Pakistani family that found medical help at Shriners Hospital in Chicago for their daughter with cerebral palsy has been asked to leave the US after the authorities discovered that the family had overstayed their visa.

Eight-year-old Tooba Mujahid smiles broadly, but she cannot talk, has difficulty in swallowing food, uses a wheelchair and occasionally has seizures.

Doctors in Pakistan took months to discover what was wrong with her when she was a baby and then could do nothing to relieve her pain or treat her chronic pneumonia, said her parents, Abida Mujahid and Syed Mujahid Jilani.

The couple then travelled to the US in 1999 with Tooba and her sister, Alina, 4, to find help. Shriners Hospital welcomed them and paid for Tooba’s costly care.

Doctors at Shriners inserted a feeding tube in Tooba’s stomach because her frequent bouts of pneumonia were caused by problems in swallowing.