Meet the sick boy who wished to be a firefighter

Little Tran Dang Trung Quan was excited to experience a day as a firefighter in August 2023 at Children's Hospital 2, Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: BVCC

I met Quan again when his mother, Ms. Dang Thi Kim Loan (46 years old, living in Cu Chi district) took him for a check-up. Quan looked healthier, smiling innocently, showing off that he had just returned to first grade.

A day as a firefighter

At 6:40 a.m., in the pouring rain, Ms. Loan went in to hand in her medical records. Waiting for her child's turn, she once again poured out her feelings after a year and a half of fighting illness with her child. In early 2023, Quan was in first grade in his maternal hometown in Binh Thuan .

Working as a worker in Ho Chi Minh City, when she came to visit, she saw many big bruises on her son's arms but thought it was because he was playing around at school. Unexpectedly, Quan became weak and tired often, so she took him to Ho Chi Minh City for a checkup and almost collapsed when she learned that Quan had acute myeloid leukemia.

Her heart ached. She temporarily quit her job and since Quan was admitted to the hospital in April 2023, she has been staying in the treatment area to take care of her son. During the days Quan was receiving IVs, she stayed up all night to watch over him. Looking at her son, who weighed only 20kg, had all his hair falling out, had dark skin, and was lying unconscious, she shed tears countless times.

Although Quan was in pain and felt hurt, he was still very obedient and loved his mother. She said: “There was a bright seed inside me. I kept telling my mother that I wanted to grow up to be a firefighter to save people.” Coincidentally, the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department (PC07) of Ho Chi Minh City Police – which often organizes firefighting experiences for children – learned about Quan’s dream.

Captain Do Ngoc Duc, then secretary of the PC07 Youth Union, said that he immediately proposed to make his dream come true.

He shared: “My teammates and I were very worried and nervous about whether Quan’s health was safe enough to experience the experience. On the morning of August 4, 2023, with the support of doctors and nurses at Children’s Hospital, the experience took place smoothly and safely.”

Ms. Loan still remembers that morning when Quan was instructed in basic operations, and performed his duties with the other firefighters, spraying and extinguishing the fire… Observing Quan in his blue-black uniform and red fireman’s hat, everyone commented that he was active and learned quickly. Ms. Loan’s eyes lit up with pride that her son’s beautiful dream had come true, even if it was just for one day.

Quan was the first child patient that the unit came to the hospital to organize an experience session for. “After that session, Quan was brighter and healthier. My teammates and I were happy to bring a smile to him,” said Duc.

Loan kept repeating: “After that meal, your child’s illness got better. There was a time when Quan was very weak and couldn’t eat by mouth. People advised him to prepare himself mentally. He said he didn’t want to die, he wanted to live with his mother…”

Taking care of her child, the mother discovered she also had cancer.

Currently, Loan and her son are renting a room on Provincial Road 43, Cu Chi District. Buying another bun for Quan, watching him eat, she remembers the difficult times.

After finishing 5th grade, she is the eldest of eight siblings. Every night she goes up the mountain to collect coal and carry it back to sell. Until now, she still feels like her life is full of ups and downs, like a road with mountains on one side and a cliff on the other, if she lets go she will fall.

She got married and had a child. Quan was born in 2016. Since she was young, she suffered from heart failure. Her family was poor so they only bought medicine to take. Taking care of Quan, she couldn’t sleep many nights, her chest ached, she had to ask the nurses in the same room to massage her back to relieve it.

She did not expect that the cancer would get worse, every time she lay down she could not breathe due to the effusion. The left side of her neck was enlarged, the goiter felt hard and heavy like a rock.

Advised to go for a check-up, she sobbed: "Where do I get the money to get checked? I might find out I have a disease." Only after hearing the threat that if anything happened, who would take care of her child, did she agree to go to the Oncology Hospital for a check-up. She said: "The biopsy results showed that I had metastatic thyroid cancer. When I held the paper, I cried so much."

She wanted to live to take care of her son. When she returned, she could not hold back her tears when she saw her son alone at the Buddha statue, clasping his hands and praying: "Everyone who sees me and my mother feels sorry for me, please help me get money for surgery." Seeing Quan praying, everyone was moved to tears.

The pain was too much to bear. After Quan was discharged from the hospital, she sent her child to her grandmother to take care of him, and underwent the surgery alone last October, and then the second surgery in early November.

Looking at her mother through the phone screen, Quan cried: “Mom, are you okay? I love you so much!”. She will soon have radiation therapy again. “Nowadays, when I do heavy work or think too much, my head hurts, and sometimes I forget things,” she confided.

Hoping for a miracle

Both mother and son are fighting a terrible disease, but instead of crying over their cruel fate, they rely on each other and light up their own lives. Quan’s nickname is Sang. Loan said that every time she calls him “Sang”, she feels a glimmer of hope.

The boundless love of his mother and the care of those around him helped Quan recover somewhat. Recently, he weighed 34kg, chubby and everyone loved him.

Feeling sorry for her son who had to drop out of school last year, Loan asked for Quan to study in a religious school so that he would not be bored and have friends. “These days, he has been learning to color strokes. He likes studying Vietnamese and knows his lessons well,” Quan smiled, his small hands flipping through the pages of his notebook with purple strokes.

To make ends meet, Ms. Loan wakes up at 4 a.m. every day. While her child is still asleep, she rides her bicycle to sell lottery tickets. At 5:30 a.m., she comes home to get her child ready for school, and she continues selling until noon to cook for her child. If there are any remaining tickets, she goes out in the afternoon, regardless of rain or shine.

There was a time when, despite being seriously ill, to have money to take care of her child, she would wake up at 1am and cycle to the wholesale market. On the deserted late-night road, the mother was not afraid, only hoping to sell 200 lottery tickets a day. Later, she realized that if she fell down, who would take care of Quan, so she stopped working late at night.

During the story, she kept looking at her son. Quan hugged his mother and asked if she was tired. He took the dumpling and broke it into small pieces to feed his mother. When taking blood, Quan frowned slightly, but after the examination, he said, "It doesn't hurt anymore, Mom."

She rubbed Quan's back and squeezed his hands: "Poor thing. He went to school but his hands have been cramped and infected with bronchitis these past few days. While he was writing, they hurt and cramped up, so the teacher had to rub them for him for a while."

Thinking about the road ahead, Loan's tears fell again. At times she thought of taking her child and leaving this life. But then she calmed down.

In her heart, she knew that her son was like a young tree, capable of miracles, capable of magic. So whatever he wanted to eat or do, she tried her best to make him happy. Quan loved to eat chicken, sausages, snails, and the sour soup his mother cooked.

The rain was still pouring down, mother and daughter held hands as they walked home. It seemed like the rain was sobbing for two small fates amidst the storms of life. In a little while, the sun would shine again…

What warmed her heart the most was that Quan not only loved his mother but also thought of others. The day he donated to the people affected by storm No. 3, he went to school and took out 40,000 VND that his mother had given him for a few days to contribute. Quan showed it to his mother and smiled happily because he had done something meaningful.

Quan rests while waiting for test results after a follow-up visit. Although she herself is sick, Kim Loan always holds her child's hand tightly to overcome life's storms - Photo: YT

On March 9, 2024, the PC07 Youth Union organized an experiential training session “A day as a firefighter” for more than 300 students, with Trung Quan also present. The unit awarded him 10 million VND to support his studies.

“We often contact Quan to inquire about his health and treatment. We hope he will always be optimistic in fighting his illness, overcoming difficulties to become a resilient and brave firefighter,” Captain Do Ngoc Duc shared.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/gap-lai-cau-be-bi-benh-uoc-lam-linh-cuu-hoa-20240927111008794.htm