‘I still haven’t forgotten those dark times’

Doctor Do Doan Bach (born in 1991, working at the Heart Institute, Bach Mai Hospital, Hanoi) still does not think that he is so lucky when he is one of the 10 typical young Vietnamese faces of the year. 2020 to you.

Doctor Bach was born in a traditional medical family, his grandfather is Professor Do Doan Dai, former Director of Bach Mai Hospital. However, his initial choice was not to follow his family career but to study Transportation.

In 2009, after graduating from high school, Bach entered the University of Transport. While waiting for admission, he was advised by his grandfather to rethink and continue the family business. As he was about to step into the lecture hall, he decided to turn and hit the road study abroad at Guangxi Medical University (China).

After 6 years of study, Bach returned home to continue studying internal medicine and cardiology at Hanoi Medical University. From 2017 until now, he has worked at the Heart Institute, Bach Mai Hospital.

During his 5 years of work, the young doctor has participated in many volunteer trips to examine and screen for congenital heart defects for people and children in mountainous and remote areas. Volunteer trips help him connect with people and colleagues. What young doctors Doan Bach always aspires to is to come to the place and help as many patients as possible.

Unforgettable memories

In August 2021, when the epidemic in Ho Chi Minh City was at its peak, every day the Ministry of Health recorded several tens of thousands of cases in the community, doctors and nurses across the country volunteered to support the COVID-19 front. Male. Dr. Bach has been writing a volunteer application since June, but has not been allowed to leave until now.

He clearly remembers the phone call at 5 o’clock from the President of the Trade Union of Bach Mai Hospital announcing that he had to rush to the South to support the hospital. While at the hospital on night shift, Bach immediately went home to collect a few clothes and personal belongings to go on the road, only in time to instruct his wife and children a few sentences.

At 8 o’clock, the young doctor was with the delegation at the airport to check in. “Even though I only had 3 hours to hurry to prepare my things, before that, I was ready to go to help at any time.”Bach said.

Doctors of Bach Mai Hospital were assigned the task of establishing the No. 16 Field Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. He is in charge of treating the heaviest patients on the 5th floor (in the 5-storey treatment tower of Ho Chi Minh City).

Although he understood the epidemic situation in Ho Chi Minh City, when he started receiving patients directly, he was really confused. Patients are brought in continuously, the phone rings non-stop, the sound of an ambulance runs all the way down the road. Most of them were brought to the treatment area on the 5th floor without their names and addresses because they were all taken by ambulance in a state of coma, sedation, and mechanical ventilation.

Working 8 hours a day in the treatment area, Bach and the doctors are always in a state of tension to care for, treat and try to save the patient as best they can. Every time seeing the patient overcome the critical situation, the health is better, the doctors feel relieved and reassured when the shift is over.

However, during the time with patients fighting the COVID-19 epidemic, only 2 patients in Bach’s treatment area survived, the rest died, at most 5-6 people a day. Life is so fragile that Bach and the doctors are both haunted.

The high number of deaths is not due to the limited capacity of doctors and nurses, but because the clinical progress of COVID-19 patients is very fast, only a few hours can turn bad and cannot be cured. Most of the patients on the 5th floor have cancer, kidney failure, and the survival rate is only a few percent. “To this day, I still haven’t forgotten those dark times. These real experiences are too expensive.”Bach said.

Over 2 months in Ho Chi Minh City to fight the epidemic, Doctor Bach’s most comfortable moment was completing a “tour” on duty without any patients dying. “At that moment, I felt my life was very useful,” young doctor recounted.

Building a network of companions with F0

In parallel with the treatment of severe patients at the 16 Field Hospital, Doctor Do Doan Bach also operates the Network of Companion Physicians, directly calling to support COVID-19 patients treated at home.

Since participating in the fight against the epidemic, many patients know Dr. Bach’s phone number, so they actively call for direct advice, and acquaintances also call for advice. So his phone never stopped ringing. He admits there are times when the phone ringing is haunting.

“But the times I talked and consulted with F0 helped me regain my spirit, continue to help patients. Now, there is no situation that makes me worry too much anymore, my time in Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City helps me to draw a lot of valuable experiences”, 9X said.

Doctor Do Doan Bach is one of the people who came up with the idea and built this network at the most stressful time of the COVID-19 epidemic in the whole country.

The goal of the Network of Companion Doctors was to try to create a tool so that all doctors across the country could support the southern provinces and cities with medical overload at that time. The network will reach F0 patients for consultation, reduce patient panic and anxiety and screen those cases that really need to be hospitalized.

Many people at that time were very confused and worried when they were sick. Just need medical staff to call for consultation and disease screening, they are assured. That is also the mission of the Network of Companion Physicians.

The Network of Companion Doctors is likened to a “battle in the clouds”. Doctors and patients do not know each other’s faces, they only hear each other’s voices over the phone. Doctors also just hope one day to call to consult as many cases as possible, so that people can regain their confidence, calm down, no longer panic.

Only during the COVID-19 outbreak in Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces (from July to October 2021), the Network of Companion Physicians mobilized more than 10,000 doctors and volunteers across the country. participate in remote consultation for thousands of difficult cases of F0 during this peak period of the epidemic, accounting for 42% of the total number of patients nationwide. Particularly, the Network of Companion Doctors in Binh Duong province, directly managed by Doctor Bach, has supported about 90,000 patients.

Up to now, the Network of Companion Physicians is being transferred to the Ministry of Health and begins to be handed over to the Health Departments of the local takeovers such as Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Binh Duong, Da Nang, and Hanoi. As one of the founding members and operating this network, MSc Do Doan Bach hopes that this will be the money to develop into a network of family doctors, contributing to improving the quality of grassroots healthcare. contribute to effectively solving overcrowding in central hospitals.