Tet in hospital of female doctor who refused cancer treatment to have more children

On the night of the 30th of Tet, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien visited Viet Duc Friendship Hospital (Hanoi) to visit and encourage Dr. Nguyen Thi Hanh who had just undergone surgery. After a major surgery, the road to cancer treatment is still long, but Dr. Hanh always keeps a determined smile.

Professor Trinh Hong Son, Deputy Director of Viet Duc Hospital, who participated in the surgery on February 12, said that doctors had removed more than 50 tumors in the patient's mediastinum, lungs, and abdomen. The patient's health is currently stable and he can be discharged in the next few days.

Minister Tien wished Dr. Hanh a speedy recovery and advised her to "have regular health check-ups to monitor her illness."

Sharing with the Minister, Dr. Hanh said that she only had one health check-up after giving birth to her second child. She recently discovered metastatic cancer during a routine health check-up.

Doctor Nguyen Thi Hanh, 33 years old, working at the Department of Musculoskeletal, Bach Mai Hospital (Hanoi), was diagnosed with adrenal gland cancer at the end of 2015. Doctors at Viet Duc Friendship Hospital performed surgery to remove a tumor measuring about 2.5 cm for the patient. At that time, faced with the decision to receive chemotherapy and give birth, she refused treatment so that she could have another baby because she thought "one day when I leave this world, at least the children will have two sisters to help each other".

In early 2016, she gave birth to another baby girl. Recently, during a health check, she discovered that the cancer had metastasized to many places in the mediastinum, lungs and abdomen, with many large tumors nearly 10 cm in size. On February 12, doctors had to open her chest and abdomen to remove the tumors.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien asked doctors at Viet Duc Hospital to focus all their efforts on surgery to save Dr. Hanh. The Minister personally sent the family 5 million VND to celebrate Tet. Bach Mai Hospital sent the family 100 million VND, including donations from the Hospital Director, colleagues at Yen Bai Provincial General Hospital and Bach Mai Hospital.