Meeting the Corrective Surgery Patients

After our second clinic in Hue, we went to visit two patients in the ACWP Corrective Surgery Program. We met Khoa, a 5-year-old boy who lost his left leg in a traffic accident two years ago. When crossing the street to go see a doctor, Khoa was struck by a car and the accident completely severed one of his legs. Facing financial hardship, his parents had to go to Saigon to look for job, leaving Khoa to live in Hue with his grandmother. Because of his circumstance, ACWP provided the resources to give Khoa a new prosthetic leg. He will receive funding from ACWP for the prosthetic leg renewal as he grows up.

Our second patient is Huong, a six-year-old girl with congenital paralysis on the left side of her body. Although she can still walk with both legs, Huong is unable to use her left arm completely. Her condition was due to brachial nerve damage, causing total loss of muscle function. Fortunately, this condition can be corrected with surgery, and Huong has been scheduled to receive one later this summer. The cost for her surgery without aid from ACWP is approximated to be several millions VND, not including other hospital fees and expenses (medicine, hospital service, etc). But thanks to the partnership established by the corrective surgery program, Huong’s family was able to afford the surgery with the total cost being only 200.000-300.000 VND.

-- submitted by Minh Minh Nguyen, UC Berkeley