Doctor Tang Ha Nam Anh tells the story of going to France to study surgery

Dr. Tang Ha Nam Anh is a famous Doctor, Orthopedic and Traumatology specialist in Vietnam. He is currently the President of the Vietnam Arthroscopy and Joint Replacement Association and a member of many international medical associations.

But few people know that to get here, he had to take some difficult initial steps. Recently, he told the story of those first days.

The awkward "first times"

In 2004, while I was doing my residency in France, one fine day Professor Hardy called me up and told me to prepare a technical report on endoscopic surgery to remove foreign objects from the subtalar space of the ankle.

So I rushed to read books, asked the teacher's secretary to call patients for follow-up visits, prepared French slides and started practicing my presentation in French with the French residents for correction.

Presenting a paper in a foreign language for the first time in front of a conference of nearly 800 people was a tremendous pressure for a young doctor (just 30 years old at that time). In the end, everything went well, and the whole French residency group took me out to celebrate.

21 years later, the young man returned to Paris with a report on the history of joint replacement in Vietnam at the French Orthopedic Trauma Conference. Although this year was less shaky than the previous year, many memories came flooding back.

Doctor Tang Ha Nam Anh at the technical report on endoscopic surgery to remove foreign objects in the subtalar space of the ankle in 2024.

Looking back to mid-October 2003, I was a young man with limited French and a few coins in hand, but my determination to "earn letters" in the field of orthopedics was as high as other young people with a lot of enthusiasm and "poor money".

The first week of working as a "resident" translating the words Faisant Fonction d'Interne FFI word for word, the head of the department - Professor Lortat Jacob - who later found out that he was easy-going and a bit humorous - made a comment that made the boss's mood drop: "Nam Anh, you speak "kitchen French" (francaise dans la cuisine).

The second week, the teacher asked all residents to attend the French SOFCOT Orthopedic Trauma Conference. Because we were residents, we received a discount to attend the conference. Entering the Bordeaux hall, I was overwhelmed by the large number of doctors and the many good lectures. I took a picture with Professor Louis Pidorz, ​​who had come to Saigon to teach the Orthopedic Trauma class and to evaluate the residency selection for the entire group of foreign doctors going to France. At that time, I had a rather crazy idea that one day I could stand on the podium to report at the conference.

Although I later had the opportunity to report in many places, at many large conferences in the region and continent, all were in English. So this trip to France to report in French was a "dream come true".

From past to future

3 years ago, during a trip to France, I had the opportunity to talk with a French friend about a cooperation plan with the French Orthopedic Association and the Vietnam Orthopedic Association on Vietnam-France cooperation around arthroscopy. In fact, I have been doing it since 2015 or 2016 with the French Endoscopy Association and the Ho Chi Minh City Endoscopy Association.

Professor Patrice Mertl was invited to attend the Vietnam Orthopedic Conference in Hue and then the Vietnam Arthroscopy and Joint Replacement Association (VAAS). The plan for Vietnam to become a guest country at the French Orthopedic Conference was formed from there.

As a result, the Vietnam Orthopedic Association attended with about a dozen reports in English. On the second day of the conference, I had a 15-minute report in French to introduce the history of joint replacement in Vietnam from the past to the future.

Bordeaux conference report, unbelievable. 22 years ago it was a dream, today 22 years later the dream came true.

And the interesting thing: still not forgotten French. After the report was praised by many French professors for what Vietnam has developed, but it is still the same old French in the kitchen.

Story just told now

Dr. Nam Anh said, in 1991 I was admitted to Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy and packed my bags to move from my poor hometown to the city.

"Luckily, I was able to stay at my maternal grandmother's house. She married a man who came from a family that knew French, so a few days after I started school, he called me out and asked if I knew a foreign language. I honestly answered that my English was broken because in the countryside, I only learned it in class and had no opportunity to practice. He said that all doctors in the past knew French, so I should learn it," Dr. Nam Anh recounted.

Dr. Nam Anh continued, "After that, every night I eagerly sat down to help him sell lottery tickets and learned French with him, with the first book being Cours de langue de civilisation. To add a little more, he was someone who studied French as his main language,

Near the end of the boarding year, my best friend asked me why don't you and I study French again to take the FFI exam? So I registered to study and take the exam and passed the exam to get a spot to go to FFI.

In November 2003, young doctor Nam Anh enrolled at Paris 13 University and did his residency at Ambroise Pare Hospital in Boulogne Billancourt. It was the first, longest and furthest overseas trip of a young doctor who had just graduated from orthopedic trauma residency.

Carrying a suitcase full of instant noodles and some spare change as luggage, the young man was excited and eager to go to the country he loved, but along with that came the first shocks of life. "First, I went to pay the tuition at the university. I brought cash, and when I arrived, I found out that the school only accepted checks. At that time, I couldn't open a bank account because I didn't have a place to stay or a job confirmation. I spent a day begging my friends at the university to write me a check for the exact amount of money I needed to pay. Thank God, the cashier saw my bewildered face as if I was about to cry after a day of begging, so she wrote me a check" - Dr. Nam Anh recounted.

Dr. Tang Ha Nam Anh studied arthroscopic shoulder surgery in France in 2003.

Dr. Nam Anh still remembers today that "I was lucky enough to 'fall' into a hospital specializing in arthroscopy and joint replacement. Professor Hardy, a famous person in arthroscopy. He operated quickly, beautifully and... quite hot-tempered. I timidly asked him to teach arthroscopy, he said that the following week I would go with him to learn on donated human cadavers. A week of struggling like that.

A year later he called me up and told me to prepare a report for the arthroscopy conference in Bordeaux. That was the first time I had reported in French at a conference abroad. It was not until 22 years later that I was able to return to report in French in Paris"….

Anh Thao

Source: https://suckhoedoisong.vn/bac-si-tang-ha-nam-anh-ke-chuyen-di-phap-hoc-phau-thuat-169251113140655305.htm