Exhausted by the old father's hospital bed
We returned to the house at the end of the hamlet in the scorching afternoon. The small dirt road closed in front of Mr. Nguyen Thanh Thao's house in Phu Quoi hamlet, Hung Khanh Trung commune, Vinh Long province, which had seriously deteriorated, cracked walls, damp ground, and a dark, moldy smell.
For more than ten years, Mr. Thao has been closely attached to the hospital bed because of his declining health. The real disaster struck in October 2025, when severe abdominal pain and prolonged digestive disorders exhausted him. The hospital conclusion made the whole family stunned: rectal cancer, forced to undergo chemotherapy if they wanted to nurture hopes of prolonging life.
However, in that empty house, money for medical treatment is far away. Lying on his old bed, Mr. Thao murmured: "I live to this age, it's considered enough, it's just a pity for Lieu. Poor family, I'm sick like this, it's like pushing my child into a dead end. Where's the money for chemicals...".
The eyes of an 80-year-old man are cloudy, both enduring physical pain and carrying the torment of a father who knows he is becoming a burden.
Overwhelming cost of chemicals
Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Lieu (born in 1976) is the daughter who lives with and takes care of her father. Without a stable job, whoever hires her, she does whatever job: weeding, washing dishes, construction worker... to have money to buy rice and painkillers for her father.
With a haggard face after long sleepless nights, Mrs. Lieu choked up and said that the doctor had prescribed her father to have at least 8 more chemotherapy sessions if he was healthy enough. Each session costs tens of millions of dong - an amount of money that for her is a fortune that she never dared to think of.
My mother passed away more than 20 years ago also because of poverty, no money for treatment. Now it's my father... I borrowed everywhere, but everyone is as poor as me, now there is really no place to rely on," Ms. Lieu burst into tears.
Neighbors around are all heartbroken for Mr. Thao and his son's situation. Ms. Sau Mai, who lives next door, said: "Mr. Thao's family has been poor for many years. Neighbors are also poor, we can only contribute rice, contribute a little money for medicine. Looking at his pain and not having money for treatment, who wouldn't be heartbroken," Ms. Mai said.
Mr. Huynh Thanh Au - Chairman of the Red Cross Society of Hung Khanh Trung commune - said that the whole commune has 87 poor households, 140 near-poor households; Mr. Thao's family is near-poor, while the cost of cancer treatment exceeds the local support capacity. "We really hope that through the press, philanthropists will pay attention and join hands to support so that Mr. Thao has more opportunities to continue treatment and prolong his life," Mr. Au shared.
Leaving the house at the end of the hamlet when it was already dark, the image of a thin girl holding a stack of prescriptions standing silently next to her elderly father's bed still haunts us. A life that is gradually fading away not because of lack of hope, but because of lack of money for treatment.
Please send any help to LD26019's life to the Golden Heart Charity Fund - 51 Hang Bo, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi. Account number (STK) 113000000758 at Vietinbank Hoan Kiem Branch, Hanoi; STK: 0021000303088 - at Vietcombank Hanoi Branch; STK: 12410001122556 - at BIDV Hoan Kiem Branch.
Or contact directly Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Lieu, Hung Khanh Trung commune, Vinh Long province. Or via phone number: 0975.013.748
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