Doctor Ton That Tung with world-class invention

(Baonghean.vn) - At only 27-28 years old, Ton That Tung had his work awarded a silver medal by the French Union and a silver medal by the University of Medicine in Paris. He became head of the Department of Surgery at the Hanoi Medical School when he was only 28 years old. Before the August Revolution, he had published 62 works in French medical journals in Paris and in the Far East.

Affirming a position in medicine

Professor - Doctor Ton That Tung was born on May 10, 1912 in Thanh Hoa province. He died on May 7, 1982 in Hanoi, at the age of 70. His father was the Governor of Thanh Hoa province. His father died when Tung was only three months old; his mother brought him back to Hue, living in a house with a large garden on the banks of the Huong River, near Bach Ho Bridge. At the age of nine, Ton That Tung went to Hanoi, living in the house of Doctor Ho Dac Di (at that time the only native surgeon in the whole of Indochina) to study at Buoi School, then the University of Medicine.

Doctor Ton That Tung.

Caught between a weak and French-dominated medical system, but with diligence, eagerness to learn, observation and practice, Dr. Ton brought glory to his country's medical system, and his colleagues around the world admired him.

Overcoming all the difficulties in terms of medical facilities, as well as the excessive complacency of the French medical community in Vietnam, Dr. Ton That Tung has gradually affirmed his position in the medical community of his country, as well as his name being recognized in the world medical community.

In 1932, he studied at the School of Medicine and Pharmacy, a member of the Indochina University, located in Hanoi, thinking that this was a “free” profession, not dependent on mandarins or the colonial government. At that time, Indochina had only one medical school in Hanoi, and natives were not allowed to take the residency exams.

From 1935, Ton That Tung was recruited with 10 other students to work as outpatients at Phu Doan Hospital. Medical student Ton That Tung was the first person to fight to force the colonial government to organize inpatient exams for Hanoi hospitals. In 1935, he was the only person accepted to work in the surgical department of the Medical and Pharmaceutical School, which is now the Viet Duc Hospital.

In difficult learning conditions, French teachers mainly focused on book knowledge, had little connection with the climate and local people, and had outdated and inadequate equipment. Doctor Ton That Tung had to set for himself principles for studying and working, considering daily practical work as the most important and the driving force for entering the path of scientific research.

Through studying, exchanging with colleagues, especially the ability to observe and reason, Dr. Ton That Tung discovered dozens of worms crawling in the bile ducts in the liver of a patient. With a rudimentary tool, just a scraper, he carefully dissected the structure of the liver. Using this method, during the period from 1935 to 1939, he dissected over 200 livers of cadavers to study the blood vessels. Then he drew diagrams, compared them with each other to find common features.

On that basis, he wrote and successfully defended his medical doctoral thesis entitled “How the blood vessels of the liver are divided”. With this thesis, he was awarded the Silver Medal of the University of Paris (the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Hanoi was a part at that time). The thesis was highly appreciated and became the premise for his famous scientific works.

Professor Ton That Tung lectures to students of the University of Medicine (1947), (Photo: Internet)

During the resistance war against the French, he, along with Professor Ho Dac Di, Professor Hoang Tich Tri, Professor Dang Van Ngu and a number of other physicians, built the Medical University in Ai village, Chiem Hoa district, Tuyen Quang province. As Deputy Minister of Health and Surgical Advisor to the General Command of the Vietnam People's Army, he was present on the battlefield and directly participated in surgery for hundreds of seriously wounded soldiers in Dien Bien Phu.

During the resistance war against the French, Professor Ton That Tung treated many critical cases. He and Professor Dang Van Ngu produced penicillin, an extremely valuable antibiotic for emergency treatment of soldiers and laborers - a miraculous achievement that no other country had achieved under the conditions of guerrilla warfare.

In 1947, he was appointed to the position of Deputy Minister of Health. As Deputy Minister of Health of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, he and Professor Ho Dac Di organized teaching and training for the Medical University in the Viet Bac resistance zone. Besides, he still participated in organizing treatment, developing the medical sector, at the same time with scientific research, training students, building the foundation of the Vietnam Medical School.

Although he had to move many times, to many locations such as Van Dinh, Ha Dong (1946), Lang Quan, Tuyen Quang (1947), Phu Ninh, Phu Tho (1948), Dai Luc, Phu Tho (1949), Chiem Hoa, Tuyen Quang (1950)... He was also appointed as a surgical consultant for the military medical sector at the Ministry of National Defense. He held the position of Deputy Minister of Health until 1961.

Professor Ton That Tung (in white suit on the left) leads President Ho Chi Minh to visit Viet Duc Hospital after Hanoi's liberation (October 10, 1954).

After Hanoi's liberation (October 10, 1954), he resigned from the position of Deputy Minister of Health to focus on becoming Director of Phu Doan Hospital (later renamed Viet-Duc Hospital) and holding the position of Head of the Department of Surgery at Hanoi University of Medicine and Pharmacy. He promoted the adoption of Western medicine to build and develop Vietnamese medicine, research diseases and treat Vietnamese people, and pioneered the application of techniques to develop Vietnamese surgery.

He left a profound mark on the country's 20th century medicine with his talent, intelligence and efforts in medical research to find the best solutions for treating patients.

World-class innovation

Talking about the contributions of Professor Ton That Tung, we see that not only did he contribute to the country's medicine, but his discoveries and inventions are of world-class value. French Professor, Doctor Daniel Jaeck commented on Professor Ton That Tung in the article "Professor Ton That Tung - A great personality, profound intellect and excellent surgical techniques" that:

“For us, the Professor is still one of the most famous and representative founders of modern liver surgery. His works are the source of great advances in the surgical field. He has made the greatest contribution to the creation and development of modern liver surgery methods that have developed worldwide.” So, what is that contribution?

Because he knew the blood vessels in the liver, he focused on researching a new method in liver surgery. In the 1960s, he successfully researched the method of "planned liver resection". This was a completely new and modern method, completely different from previous methods. Because before that, because there was no accurate description of the blood vessels in the liver, people were still used to the method of "unplanned liver resection". He believed that doing so was very dangerous, because if the resection was not done correctly, the patient could die from bleeding or liver necrosis.

Doctor Ton That Tung is doing research on a specimen (dried liver) (1962). Photo source: VNN

To acknowledge the merit of the first person who discovered this liver resection method, people called it “Dry liver surgery method” or “Ton That Tung method”. That is why the famous French professor Maleghi in the newspaper “Surgery Lion” in 1964 wrote: “Hanoi Medical University can be proud of having two achievements in its history, one is the first research on the structure of the blood vessels in the liver, the other is the first success in planned liver resection”.

In his scientific career, Professor Ton That Tung had “123 personal research works and many articles on scientific research, scientific and technological research methods. He was the one who diagnosed and successfully operated on the first case of acute pancreatitis caused by worms in the bile duct, or introduced new liver resection methods, from subsegmental to segmental liver resection, right liver resection, left liver resection… In 1960, he successfully researched the method of “planned liver resection”, also known as “dry liver surgery method”, or “Ton That Tung method”.

He also pioneered the method of treating liver cancer by surgery combined with immunotherapy… He was also a pioneer in the field of cardiovascular surgery in Vietnam, in 1958, when he was the first person to perform heart surgery in our country. Not only that, Professor Ton also researched the toxic substance dioxin sprayed by the US during the Vietnam War and its harmful effects, on that basis fighting the US in not using defoliants in South Vietnam.

Professor Ton That Tung instructs students during an anatomy lesson. Photo source: quochoi.org

Professor Ho Dac Di, also a famous physician and a relative of his, praised Professor Ton: "In the world of surgery, the number of people who have won the Lannelongue Prize like him is very rare, rarer than the number of physicists who have won the Nobel Prize or the number of mathematicians who have won the Fields Prize"... "A French professor told me this: "Ton That Tung is a luxury treasure for Vietnam".../.

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