Vietnam - French hospital ill health

The family of a Hanoi man who had died following treatment at French-invested FV Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, is pressing for criminal charges to be laid against the doctor allegedly at fault.

Mai Thi Thu Trang, the daughter of Mai Trung Kien who died on August 11 as a result of an appendectomy misdiagnosis by FV doctor Le Duc Tuan, told VIR she sent a request to the city police on August 31, one day after the hospital’s representatives met with her family to find a solution to the case.

Trang said the FV representatives had shown an uncooperative attitude in contrast to earlier positive noises, in which they accepted responsibility for the case and sent apologies to her family.

Trang said after her father’s death, the doctor came to meet her family confessing that his failure to make right diagnoses resulted in wrong treatments and this caused the death. FV executive director Pham Thi Thanh Mai accepted responsibility and FV general director Jean Marcel Guillon pledged to make a public apology via the media for this medical malpractice. However, this cooperative attitude was not seen on August 30.

According to Trang, her 57-year-old father was brought to FV with symptoms of appendicitis on August 8. The family told doctors he used to have heart disease and was taking anticoagulation medicine. An appendectomy was then performed. Two days later, Kien complained of chest and abdominal pains, but FV doctors did not conduct scans. Instead, they tested Kien’s blood and diagnosed him with a heart attack. FV then transferred him to Tam Duc heart hospital next door, where doctors found that his appendectomy had internal bleeding and he was in critical conditions due to blood loss. He was brought back to FV immediately for another medical operation, but his heart stopped before surgery could happen.

After his death, FV sent all documents of the case to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, which was supposed to set up an ad hoc panel to make investigations. The panel concluded on August 29 that the reason of the death was internal bleeding after surgery and the hospital failed to make timely diagnoses and treatments on this internal bleeding.

Nguyen Thi Le Thu, FV hospital’s business development director, declined to comment on the case when contacted by VIR on August 31 after Trang sent her family’s request to the police.

Tuong Thuy | vir.com.vn