In a rented room on Cong Hoa street, Tan Binh ward, Ho Chi Minh City, Ms. Phan Thi Thuy Trinh (born in 1990) takes care of every meal, every pill for her daughter every day.
Previously, Ms. Trinh was a freelancer, doing whatever anyone hired her to do, from cleaning to washing dishes to earn extra income. For more than 2 years, her child's illness has made her work sometimes available, sometimes not.
Ms. Trinh's husband - Mr. Tran Quoc Duy (born in 1986) - used to work as a construction worker, then worked as a security guard for a while. Currently, he has to quit his job because his knee joints are swollen and painful, and he has difficulty walking. The family burden is therefore even heavier...
Ms. Trinh and her husband have three children: Tran Phan Thien Ngoc (born in 2014), Tran Phan Thien Y (born in 2022) and youngest child Tran Phan Thien San (born in 2024).
In May 2024, while Ms. Trinh was cleaning, Thien Y suddenly ran to hug her mother. Ms. Trinh noticed her child's hands trembling a few times, then to her legs. In just a moment, the child's body softened gradually, leaving only the white of her eyes. The mother panicked and called her husband to take her child to Thong Nhat Hospital (Ho Chi Minh City) for emergency treatment.
The doctor came out and said my prognosis was very bad, only about 3% chance of survival and needed heart ventilation and lung support to be urgently transferred to Children's Hospital 1. I heard it and my limbs went numb," Ms. Trinh recalled.
Thien Y arrived at Children's Hospital 1 at about 3 am, the family continued to receive a warning about her child's critical condition. Thien Y was in emergency care for about 20 hours before being transferred to the ICU room for continued monitoring and treatment. In those days, Ms. Trinh only had about 30 minutes each day to visit her child, the rest of the time the mother only knew to stand outside the hospital room praying for her child to overcome the gate of death.
Even though Thien Y has health insurance, the family still has to pay for many types of drugs outside the list. Gene tests are also not covered by insurance, the test cost alone is about 8.5 million VND. Some types of medicine cost about 100,000 VND per pill, each purchase costs up to millions of VND; some bottles cost nearly 3 million VND; the hospital fee advance is from 3-5 million VND/time," Ms. Trinh said.
After many examinations, doctors concluded that Thien Y suffered from heart failure, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, causing insufficient blood to nourish the body, leading to cerebral hypoxia. The baby also suffered from infection, anemia and had to be transfused continuously. Thien Y was in a coma for 22 days, and had to use a ventilator...
When Thien Y woke up, Ms. Trinh noticed that her child did not react to the call, did not look at the object in front of her. MRI results showed that the baby had brain damage, leading to cerebral cortex blindness.
Her child's eyes are still beautiful but the light in front of her is gone..." - Ms. Trinh burst into tears.
Since being discharged from the hospital, Thien Y has almost only been lying in one place, with weak limbs, slow cognitive function and emotional disorders, epilepsy. Not having the conditions to take her child to physical therapy regularly, Ms. Trinh found exercises online and learned them to train her child.
For the past two years, Thien Y has still had to be treated and monitored for heart disease at Children's Hospital 1, and at the same time monitored for eyes, nerves and related problems. The days of taking care of her sick child also caused the family to fall into difficulty. There was a time when Thien Y cried day and night after being discharged from the hospital. Fearing that her child's crying would affect people in the same rented area, Ms. Trinh had to take her child to the park many times in the middle of the night, until the child fell asleep or cried less, the two mothers and children returned.
The income of Ms. Trinh and her husband was originally precarious, now most of it is spent on treatment and medicine for Thien Y. Both families used to borrow money, trying to support when their child just got sick, but the paternal grandparents are both old, some have had heart surgery; on the maternal side, Ms. Trinh's father passed away after a stroke, and her older sister also died in an accident in 2024. Continuous pain makes the already difficult family even more exhausted...
Currently, Ms. Phan Thi Thuy Trinh's family really needs the sharing of philanthropists and readers near and far to have more conditions to maintain treatment, buy medicine and care for Thien Y in the long journey ahead.
All help for life situation LD26208 please send to Tam Long Vang Charity Social Fund - 51 Hang Bo, Hoan Kiem Ward, Hanoi. Account number (STK) 113000000758 at VietinBank Hoan Kiem Branch, Hanoi; Account number: 0021000303088 - at Vietcombank Hanoi Branch; Account number: 12410001122556 - at BIDV Hoan Kiem Branch.
