“Dear Doctor Do Minh Hung: Each of the days I and my husband still live in this world, every day we are so grateful to you – Doctor.”

This is from a letter handwritten by Mrs. H. T. L., the wife of Mr. N. V. T., a cancer patient. She sent the letter to Dr Do Minh Hung, Head of General Surgery Department at FV Hospital, who performed an operation up to 8 hours late August 2016 to save her husband’s life.

She also expressed her deep thanks to the doctors and medical staff at FV who helped bring about the success of his operation. The woman from Phu Yen province in central Vietnam added her husband’s post operative health conditions are very good.

The couple live in the countryside and her hand writing is very hard to read but it conveys all they want to show to a talented doctor who saved the husband’s life. Dr Hung, who holds PhD in Gastroenterological Surgery and has more than 20 years of experience in General Surgery, has devoted his time to researching laparoscopic surgery – an advanced technique that has a great deal of benefits for patients, including minimal surgical incisions, less down time and less pain.

At FV, Mr T. from Phu Yen was diagnosed with esophageal cancer at stage 3A; lymph nodes were metastasis but not having invaded yet. Dr Hung, who was in charge of treatments, said this particular case was very complicated with high risks, as it required lymph nodes dissection at mediastinum, an area with a large concentration of  many blood vessels and nerves, as well as being  close to heart. Based on conducted examinations and subsequent test results, Dr Hung decided to perform radical lymphadenectomy, and thoracoscopic oesophagectomy.

On August 25, 2016, Dr Hung and his team performed oesophagectomy and lymphadenectomy on Mr T. The surgery lasted for 8 hours and caused no injuries to chest tube and recurrent laryngeal nerve but left the patient with a 5-cm incision on his neck, four incisions from 5 to 12mm on his abdomen for endoscopy, which helped to reduce infection risks and sped up the recovery process. Mr T. was discharged 10 days after the surgery. His health conditions are good now.

At present, not many doctors in Vietnam can successfully perform thoracoscopic oesophagectomy combined with lymphadenectomy, because lymph nodes are located along a recurrent laryngeal nerve and there is high risk of metastasis. Dr Hung is a surgeon who has lots of experience in conducting thoracoscopic oesophagectomy with prone position. He first conducted this approach in April 2014 and has since then provided successful treatments for dozens of patients using this procedure.