Dr. Le Vu Huynh

Destined for the career

I met Dr. Huynh at Hue Central Hospital on the last days of this year. Dr. Huynh was a careful person in communicating and sharing information about his career. Through the stories, I could clearly see in him a humble person who was shy of talking about himself but full of enthusiasm. He nurtures many programs and plans of making the name for his hometown as a place with "Best things for stroke patients" at international level.

Living in the outskirts of Hue city, he had such difficult childhood because of long days of sickness. Illness came so often that his parents took their child to the hospital for treatment so often, making him "familiar" with doctors. Compensating for his poor health, he was an intelligent, studious boy.

Graduated from Quoc Hoc High School in 2005, he was admitted to 3 prestigious universities in Vietnam and he chose to enroll in Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy. He shared: "It was only predestined, this career was not my intention, or either my parents’. When entering the university lecture hall, understanding the role of this noble profession, passion pushed me to make a lot of efforts to assert myself. "

After receiving the university degree in the field of general practitioner in 2011, he continued clinical practicing in the neurosurgery residency program specialized in cerebrovascular diseases. Many friends of him said that this turning point was risky as he was involved in a complicated specialty, standing in the thin line between life and death of patients. However, he was still determined.

Dr. Huynh checking on his patient at Stroke Centre of the hospital

Completing the residency program for doctor, he officially joined the Department of Endocrinology, Neurology and Respiratory - Hue Central Hospital in 2014 under the program for recruiting talents of the hospital those days. In the early days of his career, he suffered great pressure from the job because the faculty always received huge number of patients with complicated diseases related to neurology, ...

Right from the time treating special patients at the department, he was well aware of his profession, working harder to study and exchange experiences with his predecessors to overcome his own weakness. Moreover, he bravely approached and participated in short-term courses hosted by leading international experts coming to Vietnam ... to sharpen his skills and expertise in handling diseases related to stroke and cerebrovascular.

He shared that if a doctor had passion and favorable environment, Vietnamese doctors would not only integrate with the development of medicine, but also find a new direction contributing to the development of neurology, cerebrovascular in our country and worldwide.

Until now, he still remembered the difficult case challenging the medical team at the beginning of 2014. That was the case of a 36-year-old man in Phong Dien who suffered a stroke due to the congenital cerebrovascular malformation.

Initially, the team only considered of a way to relieve the stress of the patient's family because the survival rate of this disease in Vietnam was almost zero. However, with considerable skills, he and his colleagues "requested" the hospital leader to issue “order” to conduct intervention to "seal and reconnect" the blood vessels of the brain.

After a week of follow-up, the patient's vital sign returned to normal. This was not only a miracle for the medical team but also the happiness of the patient’s family.

Bringing happiness to many people

Doctor Huynh's name became more well-known with his colleagues and patients when Hue Central Hospital established the Stroke Department in 2015. At this time, he was "chosen" by the hospital leaders to be in the emergency team to treat patients with stroke.

Not avoiding hard work, shortly after that, he consulted with the hospital leaders to invest more facilities in the department; at the same time, coordinating with colleagues to build a process of "activating" emergent strokes algorithms according to the standards of the comprehensive center model.

His goal of treatment is for stroke patients to be promptly and timely treated within the "golden hour", with the right method and to apply timely emergency measures to limit the death rate and recovery sequelae ("golden hour" for the treatment of stroke ranges from 3 to 3.5 hours).

Dr Huynh explained that, if the “golden hour” was missed, the rate of recovery of stroke patients would be very low because if a cerebral vessel was blocked, with every minute passed, the patient would have over 2 million nerve cells injured and it is impossible to reproduce them.

Doctor Huynh monitoring the patient “having a close brush with death”.

After only a short time, Stroke Center of Hue Central Hospital completed the “treatment map” to provide “default” emergency care for patients. The total time from hospital admission to the time when the patient was consulted or being injected TPA drug or having intervention to revascularize should be summed up around 60 minutes.

After that, the "process" at Hue Central Hospital was shortened to 30 minutes by Dr. Huynh; meanwhile, the International Stroke Association allowed 60-80 minutes. Thanks to this "process", Hue Central Hospital annually received no less than 1 thousand cases of stroke patients; of which more than 90% of cases that were close to death were treated successfully with satisfactory recovery.

Recently, Mr. Tran Van Q., a 23 years old man from Quang Binh, was admitted to the emergency room at Stroke Centre, Hue Central Hospital in a life-threatening condition with consciousness disorder and left hemiplegia. After a CT scan and an MRI, Q. was diagnosed with cerebral artery obstruction of the right brain. The patient was quickly intervened by Dr. Huynh, with a needle to revascularize large arteries within 30 minutes from the time of admission to the hospital.

After 5 days of treatment, patient Q. was conscious and able to move normally. Mrs. L.T.B., a relative of patient Q. shared that when he was hospitalized, the family did not dare to believe that Q. would be able to recover. Unexpectedly, like "miracle", Dr. Huynh helped Q. "re-live", returning to normal state of health, bringing the happiness to her family.

Although Dr. Huynh is still at a young age in this profession, he is known as a benefactor who has saved hundreds of lives in the Stroke Centre. This helps him firmly and enthusiastically believe in his job, knowing that patients with strokes would no longer be an obsession.

Prof. Pham Nhu Hiep, Director of Hue Central Hospital, shared: “Le Vu Huynh is a young, competent doctor who is keen on researching new fields. The great things about Dr. Huynh are his dedication, medical ethics, and his being wholeheartedly helping patients under all circumstances ... He is a role-model for his colleagues. Currently, Dr. Huynh is the Deputy Head of the Stroke Centre, Hue Central Hospital.”

Story, photos: MINH VAN