The family of Nguyen Thi Thuan from My Son Village, Tam Anh Commune, Nui Thanh District, Quang Nam Province is going through the hardest time as her survival being left hanging by a thread, whilst her baby who was born at just 25 weeks and 5 days gestation is being under intensive care.

Thuan still requiring intensive treatment at the Da Nang General Hospital

Nguyen Hong Quan, Thuan’s husband, personally signed 2 petitions- one for backing the conduction of a Caesarean sections to save the life of his son, and the other for the operation on his wife who heavily suffered pneumonia.

According to doctor Nguyen Tan Hung from the Ward of Resuscitation - Poison Control at the Da Nang General Hospital, who directly treated Thuan, she was rushed to the hospital on 27 October due to severe pneumonia, seriously injured internal organs posing grave threat to her live.

At the time of admission, the female patient was 6 months pregnant, which caused many challenges in her treatment process.

Having removed the fetus from Thuan’s womb, the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) technique was applied on her in a prompt fashion, in an attempt to save her from death regardless of possibly grim chance of survival.

ECMO is a life-saving technique providing machine-enabled cardiac support to people with low blood oxygen, caused by problems in the heart and lungs. 

Thuan’s condition has improved very slowly. Her survival chance, by any measure, is still grim, doctors have warned. 

To date, Thuan underwent ECMO on 2 occasions, with each costing about 150 million VND, along with the use of strong antibiotics and super dialysis. She is expected to receive more ECMO support until her circulatory system can resume its proper operation.

Meanwhile, weighing just 0.7kg at the time of delivery, and facing some complicated medical problems, the premature baby is now being treated intensively in a glass box at the neo-natal intensive care unit (ICU) of the city’s Maternity and Paediatrics Hospital.

The poor couple has borrowed a total of 250 million VND from their relatives to pay a treatment fee of about VND 250 million, and now owes nearly 100 million VND to the hospital. Their elderly parents who are poor farmers prove helpless in term of financial assistance for them.

Thuan and her child have no choice but to continue their fight against for the odds in the hope of miracle of life coming to them. Her distressed family is in very desperate need of financial assistance from benevolent philanthropists from both home and abroad to cover the cost of subsequent medical treatment for herself and her prematurely born baby.

Donations for the unfortunate woman can be sent to Quan (Phone: 0398116906); or the DA NANG Newspaper, 6 Tran Phu Street, Da Nang (Phone: 0905832222) or its account No 100214851000415 at the Da Nang branch of the Viet Nam Import-Export Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank).