On the occasion of the 65th anniversary of Vietnamese Doctors’ Day (est. on the 27th of February, 1955), I would like to wholeheartedly extend my best wishes to all doctors. I wish you happiness and continued passion for your job.

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about a female doctor who had held various positions at a public hospital before she joined VNA as a provider of employee health management and care services.

As you may have guessed, she is none other than Dr. Dam Thi Thanh, who is adored, respected, and nicknamed “the nation’s favorite doctor” by her colleagues and their families.

I am grateful for the emotional and meaningful stories she shared with me in our conversation, which, to some extent, have changed how I look at work and life.

When we smile, our tiredness goes away (Cre: Vu Tuan).

It all started more than 30 years ago, back in her high school days, when she dreamed of becoming an agricultural engineer, but her father submitted her application to a medical university. Thirty years later, having held various positions, Thanh couldn’t be more grateful to her father because she is, indeed, cut out for a career in medicine. The job chose her.

Destiny brought Thanh to the emergency department of a public hospital and to VNA where she has been working until now, despite plenty of job offers from her college friends who love and want to protect her – a level-headed, smart and humble woman who has been through a lot in her life.

When Thanh started working for VNA, she thought a great deal about the limitations of her job description.  Working for a company is vastly different from working for a hospital – where the doctor-patient relationship plays a key role in the care and treatment process, where the target customers are ill patients, and where medical equipment and health workers work in sync.

As a company-based doctor, she had to work primarily with healthy employees, rudimentary medical equipment, and little manpower. Right from the get-go, she made a proposal about the need to procure basic devices such as an oxygen generator and a monitor (to monitor blood oxygen saturation, heart rate, and blood pressure) to the leadership of VNA Group, who later approved the requests. These devices have contributed to successful emergency care before patients were transported to professional medical facilities.

Dr. Dam Thi Thanh and the battle against COVID-19 at the Noi Bai Airport (Cre: VNA). 

Her job is not simply providing professional advice or periodical checkups, says Thanh. Many assume that she has an easy job and that all she does is dispense common cold medicine, wound dressings, and perform simple disinfection, but this assumption is not true. From her extensive experience, it is difficult for fresh graduates (who have never had actual working experience that puts their skills and knowledge to the test), to work at a company-based medical station.

Since joining VNA, Dr. Thanh has encountered many patients whose lives were on the line when admitted into her health station. These unforgettable memories have made her emotional to this day. They are urgent cases of anaphylactic shock from antibiotics or cardiovascular emergencies in which admitted patients were on the verge of death. She felt panicked at first, but the ample experience, skills, and knowledge she had accumulated from working at the public hospital helped her administer emergency care successfully before ambulances arrived. 

Despite the happiness she expressed from being thanked by her fellow doctors, Group’s leadership, patients, and their families on the following days, I could sense her loneliness and imagine the bitter tears and sweat that she shed in those battles for the survival of her colleagues. She insists that it was pure luck and that God blessed her and VNA’ staff. Yet, the witnesses of the miracles that Dr. Thanh performed can testify her knowledge, experience, dedication, and determination to save lives when the chances of survival were so slim.

She is never absent from the frontline when the epidemic hits the hardest (Cre: VNA).

There is one story that has become a highlight in her career at VNA – the journey to rescue a mentally ill Australian passenger from the London Heathrow Airport to the Tan Son Nhat Airport.

A decision was made by the leadership of VNA Group that a doctor needed to join this special mission. She couldn’t help feeling worried because it was different from escorting a physically ill patient traveling by air. To save the Group from unnecessary loss or trouble, Dr. Thanh quickly accepted the mission. Before the journey, she had spent time consulting psychiatrists and neurologists in her circle on what might potentially happen with this passenger.

Thanh was on edge throughout the 13-hour flight because the mission was outside of her professional comfort zone, plus she was not allowed to make even the smallest mistake. After completing the pickup and immigration procedures, the whole mission team took a nerve-racking flight back home since they had to be on stand-by around the clock in case something happened. Understanding how the doctor felt, the cabin crew members gave her words of encouragement and lent her a helping hand whenever she needed it.

Dr. Dam Thi Thanh joined the special mission as a flight crew member (Cre: Dam Thi Thanh).

Fortunately, the patient arrived at the Tan Son Nhat Airport in a stable state. After receiving a checkup, the patient was handed over to another team who would then escort him/her to Melbourne and hand him/her over to the Australian airport authority. Dr. Thanh said: “I am proud that I contributed to helping VNA fulfill its mission as the national flag carrier.”

When asked to share her thoughts on Vietnamese Doctors’ Day, she said: “Today is a special day because it marks the 65th anniversary of Vietnamese Doctors’ Day, all while the world is focusing its resources on fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic. I admire and thank my colleagues, who are fighting on the frontline for their dedication and sacrifice. I believe that COVID-19, like SARS, will be pushed back, and that life is eternal. Let us be optimistic, cherish every day, and lead meaningful lives.”

Dr. Thanh is grateful to the leadership of VNA Group for creating a vibrant, professional and humane working environment, which enables the healthcare unit to fulfill its mission. She also thanks VNA’ staff members for their trust and support so that she can grow and become a better version of herself every day.

The leadership of VNA Group congratulates doctors on the 65th anniversary of the Vietnamese Doctors’ Day (Cre: Vu Tuan).

On this occasion, we would like to thank Dr. Thanh and health workers working at her medical center for taking care of us and giving us professional advice whenever we need it. We wish you good health, happiness, and luck, which are exactly what you have delivered to our families and us.

Nguyen Phuc An-COMM