Poor family in Nghe An saves more than 50 people from jumping off bridge

Fight for life for those who want to die

On the morning of October 22, right after saving another person who had just jumped off Ben Thuy 1 bridge, the family of Ms. Dau Thi Phuc (43 years old, residing in block 15, Truong Vinh ward, Nghe An), returned to making a living by fishing. The man whose life was saved by her family was also taken home by relatives to take care of him, after his mental condition had stabilized.

“This is the third person in the past 20 days. We are used to it, saving one more person makes us happy, but we have to go back to making a living,” said Ms. Phuc’s husband, Mr. Hoang Van Manh (45 years old) with a smile.

The small house of Ms. Phuc and her younger brother Dau Van Toan (33 years old) is located close to the Lam River bank, about 100m downstream from Ben Thuy 1 Bridge. On October 21, when dinner had just been served, the couple heard a cry for help from the bridge. Guessing that someone had just jumped off the bridge, Mr. Manh immediately put down his uneaten bowl of rice, called his brother-in-law to get on the boat and quickly go out to the middle of the river.

“It was not dark yet, looking up at the bridge I saw a crowd gathered in one place looking down at the river, so I guessed that people jumped from that position. Thanks to that I was able to locate and estimate the location to row the boat to look for them,” said Mr. Dau Van Toan.

Born and raised on the river, the Lam River flows through here, and Toan and his brothers know every wave. Therefore, Toan and his brothers have experience in determining where a person who has just jumped into the river will be swept away by the current. As predicted, after only a few minutes of struggling, the two brothers discovered the man struggling in the middle of the Lam River.

“When we swam over, the man started to sink. I had to quickly jump into the river, grab his hair, and pull him into the boat. At this point, the man had been in the river for about 6 minutes,” Toan added.

Toan's brothers then took the man home, gave him first aid, warmed him up, and reported him to the police. A few hours later, when his health had recovered, his family took him home. At this time, Toan's family learned that the man they had saved was a 52-year-old man residing in Vinh Loc ward. While angry with his wife, he drank alcohol and then stopped the car on Ben Thuy bridge to try to commit suicide.

Previously, on October 2, while at home, Toan's brothers also heard loud shouts from Ben Thuy 1 bridge. Rowing a boat out to the river to search, this family rescued an 18-year-old male living in Truong Vinh ward who had just jumped off the bridge to commit suicide. Two days later, on the evening of October 4, this family continued to rescue another person, a girl who was only 12 years old.

“The young man and the girl we rescued in early October were also lucky. At that time, the flood on the Lam River was very high. Especially the 12-year-old girl who jumped from Ben Thuy 2 Bridge. When we received the call from the police asking for help, it was quite a while ago, and this bridge was also further away from our house. But when we rowed the boat out, luckily we were still able to save her in time,” said Ms. Dau Thi Phuc, adding that after being rescued, the girl residing in Ha Tinh said that because she was bullied at school, she was depressed and decided to commit suicide.

For more than 20 years making a living on this river, Ms. Phuc and her husband, along with her younger brother, have witnessed many cases of suicide by jumping off the bridge. Just hearing the commotion from the bridge, no matter how busy the family is, they jump on a boat and rush out to the middle of the river in the hope of saving someone. There are many rare cases, even though they jumped into the river for more than an hour, this family still fought to save their lives from the "mouth of the river god".

One example is the case of a 37-year-old man in Nghi Xuan (Ha Tinh), who was abandoned by his wife and became depressed, jumped off a bridge to commit suicide in 2021. "At that time, I was at a block meeting when I received news from the local police. I immediately called my husband and then my younger brother to see if anyone was nearby and then get on the boat to rescue them," said Ms. Phuc.

While having breakfast near his house, he received a phone call from his sister. Mr. Manh immediately threw away the bowl of noodles he was eating and went down to the boat with his brother-in-law to search. After more than 30 minutes of searching on the river, the two brothers discovered the man was still struggling in the water, having been swept far downstream by the current. At this time, Mr. Toan was steering the boat, while Mr. Manh leaned down into the river, quickly grabbed his hand, then pulled his shirt and pulled him onto the boat. That was just one of dozens of successful rescues of suicide victims by his family over the years.

“We didn’t do any calculations, so we don’t have exact statistics. We can only remember that my family saved more than 50 people after they jumped off the bridge. Sometimes, we saved more than 5 people in a month,” Ms. Dau Thi Phuc added.

Dream of settling down

It has been nearly a month since storm No. 10, but Ms. Phuc's family of 5 is still living in an empty house, because a wall facing the river was torn apart by the storm, and the entire kitchen collapsed. She and her husband have 5 children, the 2 older daughters are now married. The 3 younger children still live with their parents in a house with a corrugated iron roof, about 30m wide.². As for his younger brother, Dau Van Toan, he is still single and lives alone in a small house built right next door. Ms. Phuc said that her husband was originally from Quang Binh (old). More than 30 years ago, Manh followed his family to Nghe An, continuing to live a life on the river. They gathered in small boats, anchored in the middle of Lam River to fish. In 2000, Mr. Manh married Ms. Phuc - also a young woman from a fishing village, now Lam Thanh commune.

Born on a boat, drifting along the water to find food, neither Ms. Phuc nor Mr. Manh had the chance to go to school. As a result, both of them were illiterate. In 2008, in recognition of their efforts in saving many people, the government lent their family a piece of land on the Lam River to build a house, ending their days of drifting on the river. 12 years ago, their parents passed away, Ms. Phuc brought her youngest brother, Dau Van Toan, to live with her family.

In the recent storm No. 10, Ms. Phuc's family suffered heavy damage. Not only was their house destroyed, but all their livestock was also swept away by the water. "Although fishing is their main occupation, there are fewer and fewer fish these days, making fishing more difficult. So in recent years, I've raised pigs and chickens to earn more income. When the storm came, the whole family had to evacuate, and when we returned the next morning, there was nothing left. The storm collapsed the wall, and then the river rose, causing all the household items, including the children's books, to be swept away by the river," Ms. Phuc said.

Life is still full of difficulties, and many times saving people has caused the family to suffer heavy losses. Those were the times when the family had just dropped the net into the river and heard shouts, the family did not hesitate to cut the net rope to row the boat to save people. After the rescue, when they returned, the net was gone. But Ms. Phuc said that no matter how much loss she suffered, she was not as sad as the way many people behaved after being rescued. “Not everyone is happy when they are rescued. Many people even curse and blame us for not letting them die. In some cases, after we rescued them, we took them home to take care of them and waited for their families to come pick them up. When the families came, they paid us 200,000 VND, without a word of thanks. Maybe they thought we saved people for money…”, Ms. Phuc shook her head and sighed.

But there are also some people who, after being rescued, treat Ms. Phuc and her husband as family and often come to visit. “There are people we rescued, because they are still upset about their family and do not want to go home, so we keep them living in our house for many days and constantly encourage them. Among them, there is a case that we rescued more than 10 years ago, when they were students. Now they are teachers, they still come to visit regularly,” Ms. Phuc added.

According to Mr. Manh, fishermen often avoid saving drowning people. Therefore, many people do not agree with his family's actions. "Some people even see drowning right next to the boat but do not save them, they are very taboo. But my family thinks that saving people is good, it is a virtue. Even if life is full of misfortune, we have to accept it," Mr. Manh said, adding that during his 20 years of making a living here, he has witnessed many heartbreaking cases, which still make him feel pain in his heart because he could not save them in time. The most recent case was a father who took his two young daughters and jumped off the bridge.

"After hearing the news, we immediately rowed out by boat, but unfortunately it was too late. After that, my family also rowed out by boat to help the family search for the body for several days," Mr. Manh added.