'If you love the medical profession, always be dedicated to the patients'

His path to the medical profession is a "movie" worth contemplating.Nghe An Newspaper reporter had an interview with doctor Ly Ba Gi about his life and this noble profession.

PV: As someone born and raised in the mountainous region of Nghe An, surely your path to education in general and your path to medical school in particular was not easy?

Doctor Ly Ba Gi examines the patient very carefully. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

Doctor Ly Ba Gi:It was indeed an extremely difficult, arduous, and arduous road. I was born in 1989 in Noong Han village, Dooc May commune, Ky Son district, in a farming family with 7 children, including 4 boys and 3 girls, of which I was the 6th child. My village was isolated. From the village to the commune center, everyone had to walk on an 8km long trail.

When I was 4 years old, my father died of dysentery. My impression of my father is very vague. In my memory, I only remember one memory: one time my father picked me up and said: "Come on, my child, I will hold you and then we will go see the cows run"... 3 months after my father passed away, my mother remarried. When she left, she took my youngest brother who was only a few months old. My 6 brothers and I lived with our uncle.

My five siblings could not go to school, and their lives were tied to farming. Fully aware of my own disadvantages and limitations, my uncle and siblings encouraged and took care of me to try to go to school and study well... When I was in 5th grade, I left the school in the village, brought rice, fish sauce and salt, and went to the commune center to study. The boarding house was a thatched house built by the parents for their children to live, work and study. There were 10 students living in the boarding house, cooking and advising each other.

To improve himself, Dr. Ly Ba Gi is very eager to learn professional knowledge and experience from his colleagues. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

Remembering the advice of my uncle and siblings, I also tried very hard to study. In primary school, I was one of the two students with the highest scores in the school. Thanks to that, I was admitted to the Ky Son district boarding secondary school. Being good at studying in the commune does not mean being good at studying in the district. In grade 6, I was "weak" and had to struggle to catch up with my friends. It was not until grade 7 that I learned how to study. From then until grade 12, I was often an excellent student and one year was an excellent student of the district.

After graduating from high school, I took the university entrance exam but failed. While I was at home, I was fortunate to be considered by the district and sent to study as a candidate. I was very happy and expressed my wish to study at medical school and was accepted to study at Thai Binh Medical University. The reason I wanted to pursue medicine was because I wanted to cure and treat illnesses, bringing joy and happiness to many people. My father died from the epidemic, and I was also seriously ill and had to stay in the hospital for 2 months.

PV: Getting into medical school is difficult, but becoming a doctor is perhaps even more difficult. Can you share about your past days at university?

Doctor Ly Ba Gi:The day I received the notice to go to school, I was both happy and worried. I was worried that I wouldn't know where to get money to study for the next 6 years. As we all know, the amount of knowledge in medical school is very large, and students cannot work part-time. However, my uncle and brothers were the ones who tried to take care of me to study. From 2009 to 2015, I was given 1.5 to 2 million VND per month. Actually, at that time, that amount of money was only enough for me to pay for accommodation and eat 2 meals a day (lunch and dinner). Spending had to be calculated very carefully and economically. Skipping breakfast was a habit.

Doctor Ly Ba Gi examines the patient very carefully. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

Enterstudy medicineis a very difficult major, I know my own learning ability so I tell myself to try and make more effort. The first 4 years, I stayed in the dormitory. This is a good condition to compete in studying. And especially, I have many friends to ask, if I don't understand anything, I ask my friends and seniors. When it comes to clinical practice, I asked to follow my seniors to study. Then I got to know them, followed my seniors who were young doctors, on the days when these doctors were on duty, I asked to go to the hospital to go with them, to learn from them about treating seriously ill patients and to do some work such as visiting, examining and receiving patients.

Near the graduation day, the Ministry of Health sent a working group to survey the career aspirations of the students. They had many wishes and aspirations. As for me, I was able to study under the selection program. Before leaving, I wrote a commitment to serve my homeland. Therefore, I was very confident and determined that I would return to my hometown, Ky Son, to my home province.

In May 2015, I graduated from school. I returned to Ky Son district to wait for the entrance exam to the Medical Center. I waited for more than a year, but this time the district had no recruitment quota. The center only recruited 1 person, but 4 people took the exam. After waiting for a long time without success, I went to the district to ask if the locality did not accept me, could I go to work outside the province?

Having received the answer, I went to Dak Nong province to submit my application for the exam. While waiting for the exam, I heard that the Tuong Duong District Medical Center was recruiting doctors. There is nothing more precious than working near home, right in the province, so I hurried back to submit my application and was accepted to work.

PV: As a young doctor just starting out in the profession, what difficulties did you encounter? And what was the motivation for you to overcome those difficulties and challenges?

Doctor Ly Ba Gi:When I returned to work at the Tuong Duong District Medical Center in 2016, I encountered many difficulties in both life and practice. My family was very poor, without any means of transportation, I had to borrow my father-in-law's motorbike to go to work. Until now, I am still using that motorbike. Another difficulty was living in a rented house, far from home (nearly 90 km away), only being able to go home once every few weeks, missing my wife and children very much.

In terms of expertise, there are also many difficulties when “learning” and “practicing” many different points. When at school, students are exposed to and learn with many modern machines, fully equipped with tests. But when returning to the center – a third-class medical examination and treatment unit, the machines are sufficient but not as comprehensive as at school. Therefore, you have to learn more experience in medical examination and treatment to be able to do it.

Faced with these difficulties and challenges, I myself had to try very hard to overcome them, in addition to the great care and support from the board of directors, as well as colleagues at the medical center. The board of directors cared and created conditions for me to study emergency resuscitation at Bach Mai Hospital, to further improve my professional knowledge. The senior doctors, colleagues in the department and the center were very enthusiastic in instructing, helping, and sharing experiences. Every week I have 3 shifts on duty, in addition to these 3 shifts, I go to the center every day to follow the doctors with good expertise to work together and learn more.

I just think simply: If I am still weak, I must try to learn more. I must study to complete the assigned tasks well, take good care of people's health... Through contemplation, I clearly see my own strengths and weaknesses. The weakness of the Mong people in general and myself in particular is that they often absorb new things slower than other people and other ethnic groups. But in return, the Mong people are very hard-working, diligent, industrious, persistent, have high will and determination. I tell myself to promote these strengths and overcome these weaknesses.

Doctor Ly Ba Gi is an example at Tuong Duong District Medical Center in terms of learning spirit and devotion to patients. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

To help me stabilize my life and work with peace of mind, the Board of Directors recruited my wife (graduated from medical school) to work. Now both of us work at the center. We both have stable salaries to take care of our family life. Recently, we borrowed money to buy a piece of land and build a house in Phong village, Thach Giam town. "Settling down, having a career", in the near future, when life is less difficult, I will continue to study for a specialist degree to be able to perform my work tasks better, to meet the development requirements of the unit and the needs of the people.

PV: It can be said that now, you are a doctor with "hard" expertise and somewhat "settled down", do you still have any concerns in the process of performing your duties and in your private life?

Doctor Ly Ba Gi:During my work, I realized that my unit still lacks diagnostic imaging and paraclinical testing machines. If the unit had more modern machines, the examination and treatment would certainly be better.

Another concern is that people in the highland areas still do not have full awareness of health care. Many patients when experiencing mild symptoms are often subjective, and only when the disease progresses to a serious stage do they take themselves to a medical facility, which is too late or makes treatment much more difficult. In addition, there are still people who do not go to a medical facility when they are sick but rely on shamans, especially patients of the Mong ethnic group. Personally, in addition to examining and treating, I also promote the role of "a Mong doctor" to actively propagate to people to understand the disease, not to be superstitious, but when sick, they must go to a medical facility immediately.

Doctor Ly Ba Gi examines the patient very carefully. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

Another concern is that the economic life of people in mountainous areas is still difficult. Many fathers and mothers leave their children to their grandparents when they are still a few months old to leave their hometown to earn a living. Therefore, many children do not receive adequate care, especially in terms of nutrition. Early weaning and malnutrition cause children to have weak antibodies and become malnourished and stunted. Many children have hair loss at the back of their necks, and at 7-8 months old, they only weigh 5-6 kg. This is also a very worrying problem, affecting the health of children and the quality of their future offspring.

Personally, I am a medical officer. I realize that people working in the medical industry are very hard-working, and the income is not high. There was a time when some departments did not fully evaluate the medical industry... But I think that is not too big a problem. The important thing here is that if you love the medical industry, you need todevotedmoreover. I need to do my job better so that people have a more accurate and closer view of the medical profession. Regarding income, I think life will gradually get better when I myself am better. A good doctor, in addition to good expertise, needs to have good ethics; needs to treat patients as relatives, family members to treat. Dedication and effort are the yardstick for those working in the medical profession. I always vow to try to become a good doctor.

PV: Thank you doctor!