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Exclusive: Family Struggles To Obtain Parking Spot For Handicapped 12-Year-Old

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- When it snows, people in Philadelphia reserve their parking spots with chairs, but who is reserving a spot for 12-year-old Salina Sok from South Philadelphia, who is bound to a wheelchair.

Sok's mother has been battling the city, trying to get a handicapped parking spot in front of their home, but the family's application was denied.

"I love her a lot, the one thing I don't understand, I need the parking spot and they deny it," said Nil Sok.

Now the family's attorney, David Ferleger, will be filing this suit against the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

"Usually the government tries to be reasonable and the unreasonableness of this was so surprising to me that I immediately offered to help no matter what I it would take," said Ferleger.

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When Salina has to leave the house, her mother and nurse sometimes have to carry her a few blocks to and from their car. Selina weighs about 90 pounds.

"She has so many seizures a day her, neurologist says there are too many to count," Ferleger.

According to Selana's lawyer, the application for the parking spot was denied because the two neighbors on either side of Salina's house did not approve or deny the family's request.

"This is not a case of neighbors versus neighbors, this is a case about the city acting irrationally. No neighbors said 'no,' but the city said 'no,'" Feleger said.

Officials from the PPA said the parking authority does not make the final decision on handicapped parking applications.

City officials have made no official comment with regards to this story.

Reported By Valerie Levesque, CBS 3

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