At Tam Diep Rehabilitation Hospital (Ninh Binh province), the image of Mrs. Dinh Thi Xuyen (Tan Thinh hamlet, Yen Tri commune, Phu Tho province) pushing an old wheelchair with her niece has become familiar. She is being treated for thyroid cancer, has had surgery to remove the thyroid gland, her health has declined a lot but she still has to struggle to take care of her grandchild Le Minh Minh Minh (born in 2012) who is quadriplegic due to Japanese encephalitis.
Minh Minh was diagnosed with the disease in August 2021. After a long period of treatment, the child saved his life but the sequelae left him almost unable to move his whole body. Minh Minh is Mrs. Xuyen's grandson.
Her parents divorced, her mother took another step, so for a long time she had only her grandmother as a support. She dropped out of school when she had just entered grade 5, partly because of serious illness, partly because she had no money for her to continue going to school.
The family was already in difficulty, and by last year it had almost fallen into a deadlock. Her son - Minh Minh's mother's younger brother - went to Cambodia to work and then got into trouble and was held back.
Unable to turn around the money, Mrs. Xuyen was forced to sell her only house of the two grandmothers and grandchildren to have money to " redeem" her children. After selling the house, the couple no longer have a place to live and are being rented by the new owner until the end of the year.
Despite her poor health, Mrs. Xuyen still often takes her child to Tam Diep for rehabilitation exercises. When the child was treated by a doctor, she took the opportunity to take care of the patients for the patients' families in the hospital. The work included cleaning, fertilizing porridge, changing diapers, and supporting the patient's dialysis. For healthy people, it is already hard, for Ms. Xuyen, people with diseases in the body are even more stressed. But she still had to do it, because "if she didn't do it, there would be no money to buy medicine for her grandchild".
Income from medical care is only enough to cover basic daily needs. Every penny she earns, she carefully records in a small notebook as if to remind herself to try a little more. "I was just afraid that one day my illness would get worse, I would not be able to take care of my grandchild," she shared.
Minh Minh cannot sit or move by himself. Mrs. Xuyen was the only person he trusted. In rare free times, she massages her child's limbs and encourages him with a voice full of sadness due to illness.
Ms. Xuyen's biggest wish at present is to have the opportunity to do more full rehabilitation exercises and have medicine to take every day. The lives of the two grandmothers and grandchildren are a series of unknown days. A sick mother still has to work hard to raise her child with quadriplegia. A 12-year-old child has lost both his health and the opportunity to go to school. But amidst many difficulties, people still see in Mrs. Xuyen her perseverance and great love for her grandchildren, the only thing that helps them cling to every day ahead.
Speaking to reporters, Ms. Dang Thi Hue - Head of Tan Thinh hamlet (Yen Tri commune, Phu Tho province), representative of the local government - said that Ms. Xuyen's family is in a particularly difficult situation in the hamlet.
"We always try to create all conditions to support. This family is in the most difficult group" - Ms. Hue informed.
Any help for the life of LD25077, Mrs. Dinh Thi Xuyen and baby Le Minh Minh, please send to the Golden Heart Charity Fund - 51 Hang Bo, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi. Account number (STK) 113000000758 at Vietinbank Hoan Kiem Branch, Hanoi; Contact number: 0021000303088 - at Vietcombank Hanoi Branch; Contact number: 12410001122556 - at BIDV Hoan Kiem Branch.
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