Vietnamese doctors help in miraculous revival of stranded American amid COVID-19

The patient (in wheelchair) has been discharged from the hospital and safely returned to the US.

A US citizen who suffered a fatal brain injury after a traffic accident has miraculously recovered and returned to his home country thanks to the efforts from Vietnamese doctors and concerned authorities.

After four months of intensive treatment at the Hanoi-based Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, M.J.J, 33, has recovered following his accident and was reunited with his family in the US.

Earlier, on April 20, the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) received the patient who was suffering from severe traumatic brain injury and had to rely on a ventilator to maintain his life after the traffic accident.

On the CT scan, doctors found that the American had a hematoma under the right hemisphere. He was urgently completed all the necessary tests to have an emergency surgery within the day he was hospitalised at Viet Duc Hospital. Neurosurgery specialists performed surgery to open his skull and remove the hematoma to release the patient's brain.

Dr. Bui Huy Manh, who directly operated the surgery, said an acute subdural hematoma often presents headache, vomiting, nausea, stiff neck, epilepsy, convulsion and coma. If it is left untreated, it can damage the nervous system and lead to death. Most of the dangerous traumatic brain injuries caused by accidents, especially traffic accidents, if not handled in time, can affect the patient's life or cause life-long sequelae.

After the surgery, the patient was transferred to the ICU with a 38C fever receiving mechanical ventilation. 22 days later, thanks to intensive care at the department, the patient was removed from ventilator support and vasopressor. With a stable health status, he was released from the ICU to continue treatment in a normal hospital room.

On June 25, M.J.J was re-examined with good healing surgery scar. His skull CT scan showed an image of a cranial bone defect. The patient was consulted by specialists on cranial neurosurgery and prepared for a second surgery under the autologous cranial bone graft method.

The following day, right after the second surgery, the patient was awake and could communicate with stable survival indicators. Post-operative examination one week later showed that his wound healed well, the brain was in a stable condition and the grafted skull bone was good.
M.J.J was hospitalised in April 2020 when COVID-19 laid negative impact in Hanoi and the whole country. The patient did not have a relative to take care of him and could not communicate. His visa expired on April 26 and Viet Duc Hospital had to send a notice to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health and the US Embassy in Vietnam to contact his family members in the US and to seek maximum support for him.

The hospital’s International Cooperation Department, in close coordination with the US Embassy, actively assisted the patient in foreign affairs, as well as serving as a bridge between his family and the hospital to exchange timely and accurate information between the two sides.

In addition to supporting the foreign patient, the department has helped his family overcome language barriers to motivate them during the treatment for the patient in Hanoi. The hospital also repeatedly conducted consultations under the direction of the hospital director to come up with the best care options.

Thanks to the relentless efforts from medical staff at Viet Duc Friendship Hospital and his friends in Vietnam, M.J.J was discharged late August and allowed to return home. A support team led by Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Duc Chinh – the head of the hospital’s International Cooperation Department, and his colleagues accompanied the patient to the airport to return him home in a stable health condition.
As soon as he arrived San Francisco, USA, his family was happy to report to the hospital that the patient was in a stable condition and would soon receive rehabilitation treatment in his homeland. They once again conveyed their sincere thanks to Viet Duc Hospital.

With a sense of responsibility and high level of expertise, doctors at Viet Duc Friendship Hospital saved the patient’s life, while dedicating themselves to care and support him in the best conditions during his treatment at the hospital.

Prof., Dr. Tran Binh Giang, Director of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, said that his hospital is striving to remove all "bottlenecks" in order to develop it into an international-class treatment facility, thus attracting overseas Vietnamese returning home for treatment as well as encouraging foreign patients to choose to stay in Vietnam for medical treatment.