Doctors went to Laos to treat patients and save lives.

(Baonghean) - In 2016, as part of a cooperation program in medical examination, treatment, and training of medical personnel between Nghe An Friendship General Hospital and Xieng Khouang Hospital (Lao People's Democratic Republic), 13 highly skilled doctors from Nghe An Friendship General Hospital went to work in Laos... These were truly memorable trips filled with experiences.

"Father Nguyen Dinh Thuc incites parishioners."

Nghe An Friendship General Hospital presents a commemorative gift to Xieng Khouang Hospital (Laos). Photo: Hoang Yen

Dr. Phan Sy Thai (Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Nghe An Friendship General Hospital) was one of the three doctors sent to Nghe An in the first wave (from early July to early August 2016), right after the cooperation agreement between the two hospitals was signed. He said that when he was assigned to the mission, he and the other doctors in the delegation couldn't help but feel anxious: "Partly because it was an unfamiliar place, and partly because we didn't understand the language, we didn't know how we would treat patients, prescribe medication, and transfer techniques to the doctors there." Fortunately, quite a few doctors and nurses in Nghe An knew Vietnamese, so the language barrier was no longer a significant obstacle.

Upon arriving in Laos, the medical team faced numerous challenges. These included difficulties stemming from the fact that all the doctors were men unfamiliar with cooking and Lao cuisine. The most significant challenge was the inadequate infrastructure and equipment at the provincial hospital in Xieng Khouang. “We were truly astonished to find that the provincial hospital's facilities were only equivalent to those of a district in our country. Equipment was lacking, especially blood supplies – not even enough for a single patient needing a transfusion, not to mention the shortcomings in the medical staff's skills.”

Regarding the patients, generally speaking, the majority are poor. When one family member falls ill, the entire family moves together, bringing along items such as blankets, cooking utensils, and even transportation to live at the hospital. Furthermore, patients usually only come to the hospital when their condition is already very serious.

"That's why it made treatment difficult. However, the warm feelings of the patients and our foreign colleagues helped us forget the hardships and focus on our mission," Dr. Thai recalled.

Despite his young age, Dr. Tran Cuong (born in 1988, Department of Trauma and Orthopedics) possesses relatively advanced skills in handling trauma surgeries. His father was a soldier who participated in the international mission against Pol Pot's genocidal forces in Cambodia, returning with serious injuries. Therefore, when his unit assigned him to Laos along with an obstetrician and an anesthesiologist to provide medical care to the local population and transfer technology to their Lao colleagues, he readily agreed. He shared: “Although I wasn't on the first group of doctors (Dr. Cuong went on the third trip, from the end of August to the end of September 2016), the difficulties that the doctors on the first and second trips described, we only truly understood when we experienced them ourselves.”

In Xieng Khouang, for patients without financial means, fractures of any kind are usually treated with simple splints and casts; while those with more resources who want surgery, pinning, or other procedures have to hire a vehicle to travel to the capital Vientiane or to hospitals in Vietnam... We have also witnessed some serious cases requiring immediate intervention, where patients and their families waited for the opinion of the village elders and clan leaders, often deciding to take the patient home if there was still a chance of saving their life. Of course, this sometimes happens in Vietnam, but we encounter it more often here. Most patients rarely return for follow-up examinations after being discharged from the hospital.”

For Dr. Thai, the most memorable experience was donating blood to a pregnant woman in Xieng Khouang. “That morning, the three of us in the team woke up, quickly prepared a packet of instant noodles (the hospital provided them to the team in case we got hungry late at night), and then went to work because the restaurants there were quite far away, and food was more expensive than back home.”

After work, I still hadn't seen the other two doctors (Dr. Trung, specializing in Obstetrics, and Dr. Hieu, specializing in Anesthesia). When I asked them, I learned they were busy performing a cesarean section on a pregnant woman. When I returned to my office after work, they still hadn't come back. I called them and learned they were performing a second surgery on the same woman because she had uterine atony and postpartum hemorrhage. At 10 PM, I called my two colleagues, and Dr. Trung quickly asked, "What's your blood type, Thai?" I replied, "Type A." He then told me to wait there while the hospital ambulance came to take me to get my blood tested so I could donate blood. At midnight, I transfused the patient, and then my two colleagues and I took turns monitoring her at the hospital throughout the night. My colleagues had lunch at midnight that night. During the night, after the blood transfusion, the patient showed signs of improvement, but she still needed a lot of blood to save her life. It wasn't until the third day that the woman received another unit of blood, but by then it was too late, and her family asked to take her home. Watching the car carrying her away, I wanted to cry. It wasn't simply pity for a human being, but the helpless tears of a doctor.”

The surgery took place at Xieng Khouang Hospital (Laos) with the assistance of doctors from Nghe An Provincial Friendship General Hospital. Photo: Hoang Yen

But those were just rare cases where the doctors had to give up. The arrival of the team of doctors from Nghe An brought much joy and life to the patients. Previously, postpartum hemorrhage had a very high mortality rate, but since the doctors from Nghe An came and transferred their techniques, this rate has decreased significantly. In the final month of their trip, they saved at least three women who suffered postpartum hemorrhage, considered a miracle in the neighboring province.

During one of his visits to provide medical care, Dr. Cuong still remembers the face of a 20-year-old young man from Anh Son, Nghe An province, who had gone to a neighboring country to work as a carpenter and had three fingers severed. Upon admission, the doctors in the neighboring country initially decided to amputate the severed fingers. However, Dr. Cuong proposed performing surgery to reattach the fingers. He called in additional doctors from the neighboring country to provide hands-on guidance. The reattachment was successful. Just a few months later, upon returning to the Nghe An Friendship General Hospital, Dr. Cuong met the young man again at his department for a follow-up examination. The young man was deeply moved and expressed his gratitude to the young doctor. Another case involved a 10-year-old child from a poor family in Xieng Khouang province who had previously broken his leg and had it put in a cast. Because her leg was in a cast that was misaligned and left in place for too long, the child was unable to walk, and her family had resigned themselves to being bedridden for life. However, with a simple procedure, Dr. Cuong re-nailed the bone in her leg, and afterwards, her leg regained normal movement.

Those bittersweet memories followed the "volunteer doctors" back to their homeland, reminding them of their love and responsibility. The warmth and hospitality of the Lao people transformed their mission from a mere duty into a truly profound experience, leaving behind unforgettable and cherished memories. It was this trip that allowed Dr. Thai, Dr. Cuong, and other doctors such as Vo Ta Trung, Tran Huu Hieu, Phan Ngoc Khoa, Tran Xuan Canh, Hoang Ngoc Anh, and others to mature, to see more deeply, and to empathize more with people and life.

"The lives of the local people are difficult, but whenever they meet experts like us on the street, the people of the host country warmly welcome and greet us. Many have taken us to visit historical sites and scenic spots in their country, both to introduce us to their culture and to express their gratitude," Dr. Cuong said.

The greatest joy for the doctors was that after a month of duty, they returned with some basic skills in treating and performing surgeries for trauma, childbirth, and anesthesia that had been quickly and successfully adopted by their foreign colleagues. Currently, some doctors from that country are being sent to Nghe An Friendship General Hospital to study and receive new treatment methods and use medical equipment with the highest efficiency.

"We left for a mission, but we returned with added responsibility and affection"—that's what all the medical teams who left Xieng Khouang Hospital shared with us upon their return.

Thuy Vinh - Xuan Cao