Man wakes up suddenly... mentally ill, wife of 23 years travels everywhere to save her husband

Recently, a team of doctors from Cho Ray Hospital (HCMC) organized a program to provide free medical examinations and gifts to the poor in Mai Dam town (Chau Thanh district, Hau Giang province). At the program, many touching images and stories were recorded by reporters.

Many people in Mai Dam town wait to be examined by doctors from Cho Ray Hospital (Photo: Hoang Le).

Little dreams

Braving the heavy rain early in the morning, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thi (67 years old) took her two children on a neighbor's motorbike to Mai Dam Town People's Committee (where the medical examination and treatment took place) at 7:00 a.m. Upon arrival, the woman was panting and continuously rubbing both sides of her leg joints.

Ms. Thi said she had been suffering from aching bones and joints and fatty liver disease for many years. To make a living, she picked vegetables and sold them for tens of thousands of dong a day. But recently, the pain became more severe, and she also had a fever and a constant cough, so she could no longer go to work.

Without her own home, she and her son had to stay on relatives’ land. It was hard enough to make ends meet, let alone get the money for Mrs. Thi to go to the doctor regularly. That was also the reason why her bone and joint condition worsened over time.

Even though it rained earlier, many people still came to wait for doctors to examine them early in the morning (Photo: Hoang Le).

Just a day before, she heard from the town officials that a group of doctors from Ho Chi Minh City would come to examine patients, so she quickly registered.

"This is the first time I have seen a hospital from Saigon come down here to examine people. I just hope the doctor will give me medicine to relieve my pain and aches, and if I am lucky, it will go away, so that I don't have to make my children suffer. All my children have to work for hire...", Mrs. Thi hopes.

Arriving about 10 minutes after Ms. Thi, Ms. Tran Thi Tron (70 years old, living in Phu Thanh hamlet, Phu Huu commune, Mai Dam town) had a hard time sitting in a chair. She said she had osteoarthritis and sinusitis for 7 years. In addition, she also had cataracts in her eyes, but had only had surgery on one eye and did not have money to treat the other eye.

Despite her advanced age, Mrs. Tron has to go digging for snails in the fields every day. On a lucky day, she can catch 2kg of snails and sell them for 30,000 VND/kg. However, the field owners are not always happy to let her go in.

Ms. Tron has many underlying diseases and came to the clinic hoping to save money on medicine (Photo: Hoang Le).

Mrs. Tron has four children. All of them have to live on boats, doing all kinds of jobs from trading to picking fruits for hire, "handymen".

"Sometimes I have joint pain that makes it hard to walk, but every time I buy Western medicine, I get bruises all over my body and stomach pain. Sinusitis causes vestibular disorders, dizziness, vomiting when staying up late, and insomnia. I go to the hospital all the time, and it costs a lot of money each time, and my relatives have to chip in to pay for it...

I just hope to receive medicine to save money, the more I give, the better. As for my osteoarthritis, people say I will have it until I die...", Mrs. Tron expressed.

Wife of 23 years travels everywhere to find a way to save her mentally ill husband

While her husband waited for his turn to see a doctor, Ms. Huynh Thi T. (53 years old) stood shyly in the area where she received gifts of daily necessities and household items. Ms. T. confided that she could not remember how many times she had taken her husband to see a doctor.

More than 20 years ago, Mr. Th. (54 years old), Ms. T.’s husband, was still the breadwinner of the family. One night, when he was 31 years old, he went to fish near his house and brought home a large basket of fish for his wife. Early the next morning, while her husband was still sleeping, Ms. T. took the fish to the market to sell. In the middle of the market, she heard that her husband suddenly fell into a coma and his limbs were stiff and critical.

Ms. T. recounts the tragedy that happened to her husband (Photo: Hoang Le).

Rushing to the hospital where her husband was taken for emergency treatment, Ms. T. was shocked when the doctor told her that her husband had a serious mental illness and might not recover. At the upper-level hospital, Mr. Th. regained consciousness after a period of care, but his mental state was no longer that of a normal person.

Since that day, the woman knocked on the doors of hospitals and clinics from the West to Ho Chi Minh City.

"I heard someone say there was a psychiatrist so I took my husband there. I went to all the provincial hospitals and mental hospitals. I ran out of money but his illness did not go away. Now my husband sometimes remembers, sometimes forgets, sometimes gets agitated, screams in the middle of the night...", Ms. T. said sadly.

In the blink of an eye, 23 years have passed, and Ms. T. has had to take care of her two children and find a way to save her husband. The small fruit garden is not enough to take care of everything, so her children have had to drop out of school.

Ms. T. has accompanied and taken her husband everywhere for treatment for 23 years (Photo: Hoang Le).

The woman said she did not regret spending the money, but each time she failed, she felt sad. However, she never thought of giving up. Today, when she heard that a group of doctors from Cho Ray Hospital was coming to the area, she took her husband by motorbike to find some hope.

After examination and based on the symptoms, the doctor diagnosed Mr. Th. with a mental disorder and amnesia (memory loss). Holding the bag of medicine in her hand, Ms. T. held her husband's hand and walked out, smiling and affirming: "Let's see what happens!"

The town's medical station of more than 11,000 people has only one doctor.

Speaking with Dan Tri reporter , Doctor Le Thanh Hung, Head of Mai Dam Town Medical Station, said that the station has 9 medical staff (including population officers) but only one doctor, which is... him.

Meanwhile, the locality has a total population of more than 11,100, with nearly 1,700 elderly people. This is a group of people with many diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and bone and joint diseases.

In the past, the station has tried to take care of their health, but many cases do not comply with doctors' instructions in health care, eat according to unscientific habits, so their health does not improve much.

In addition, Mai Dam Town Medical Station also lacks paraclinical equipment (such as diagnostic imaging machines and blood test result analyzers), making it difficult to accurately diagnose underlying diseases.

Therefore, the activities of the team of doctors and nurses of the Department of Neurology, Cho Ray Hospital contribute to supporting health care, meeting the need for drugs to treat chronic diseases for local people.

Doctor Le Thanh Hung hopes that through the program, people with serious underlying diseases in Mai Dam town can be examined and treated more intensively at higher levels in the future.

600 people were examined by doctors from Cho Ray Hospital, given free medicine and gifts (Photo: Hoang Le).

Specialist Doctor 2 Le Nguyen Nhat Tin, Deputy Head of the Department of Neurology, Cho Ray Hospital shared that there were 20 doctors and about 10 members of the volunteer group participating in the program.

The delegation examined and gave medicine to 600 cases in Mai Dam town, thereby recording health problems such as neurological (headache, back pain, sleep disorders, stroke sequelae...), musculoskeletal, high blood pressure... of the people.

Along with medical examination and medicine distribution, 600 gifts (including food, masks, mosquito nets, blankets...) - the heart of the Department of Neurology, Cho Ray Hospital and benefactors - were also sent to the people.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/nguoi-dan-ong-ngu-day-bong-tam-than-vo-23-nam-di-khap-noi-de-cuu-chong-20250519144245655.htm