A Vietnamese obstetrician has brought more than 30,000 infants into the world and invented a myriad of medical innovations that have improved public health.
Born in the central province of Quang Binh, Doctor Phan Xuan Khoi was determined to become an obstetrician due to a deeply emotional episode early on in life.
“When I was ten, I saw my mother weaken and subsequently die from hemorrhage after giving birth to my little sister,” Khoi said.
“Losing mom at such a young age, I decided to study obstetrics to help poor women who often face risks during delivery.”
The loss served as a driving motivation for Khoi, who attended Hue Medicine University and graduated with the highest score in 1984.
He was invited to teach at the school, but refused and instead returned to his hometown and applied to work at the Vietnam-Cuba Hospital in Dong Hoi Town.
Since then Khoi has devoted himself not only to the obstetrics profession, but also to research to deliver the best care and treatment to his patients.
Golden hands
One of the doctor’s renowned exploits involves a surgery performed in the summer of 1999 that provincial people and local doctors still rave about.
During Khoi’s shift one night, the hospital admitted a patient who was in a critical condition due to hemorrhage.
Doctors then diagnosed that it was an impossible medical situation due to the rupturing of woman’s aorta.
Khoi, however, asked to perform a new method that he had studied for a long time, the ligation of hypogastric arteries, to stop the woman’s bleeding.
The hospital heads and the patient’s family approved the suggestion and at the end of a two-hour surgery, the patient survived.
Her family embraced Khoi and said, “You really have golden hands.”
With the surgery, Khoi made a name for himself among local doctors.
The surgical method, in fact, was first introduced at the end of the 19th century as one option to control life-threatening postpartum hemorrhage.
However, only a few obstetric surgeons have opted for this operation due to unclear reasons, according to a European journal.
Khoi’s successful application of hypogastric arteries ligation impressed doctors, professors and experts at a national conference on obstetrics held in Hanoi in the same year and the procedure was introduced into use at hospitals nationwide, helping to save many patients suffering from heavy bleeding.
Practical inventions
Working in the field for nearly 25 years, Khoi said he had personally witnessed many times blackouts occurring during vacuum extractor-assisted deliveries, which debilitate the expectant mother and suffocate the baby.
He was determined to improve the vacuum machine – a device used to assist the delivery of a baby when labor has not progressed adequately – so that it would be able to operate despite power cuts.
After working hard on the project, Khoi achieved his goal of creating a self-sufficient machine and was granted an exclusive invention certificate by the Ministry of Science and Technology for the initiative.
Another of Khoi’s innovation, the pozzi forceps, recently won the Vietnam Fund for Supporting Technological Creation prize in January.
The forceps aims to shorten the duration of endoscopic surgery for uterine fibroids and reduces the necessary incision from more than five centimeters to five millimeters.
According to local experts, Khoi’s US$1.80 forceps are as safe as high-tech machines used for this kind of surgery, which cost VND400 million ($25,000).
Ho Chi Minh City-based Tu Du Hospital Director Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong said, “This is really an achievement of intelligence and a valuable and meaningful invention that enhances Vietnam’s medical status.”
In addition to undertakings to improve medical instruments and machinery, Khoi also spent years to research a new approach to endoscopic surgery involving the insertion of an ultrasound-directed trocar for patients with old incisions.
Trocar is a hollow cylinder with a sharp pointed end, often three-sided, that is used to introduce cannulas and other similar implements into blood vessels or body cavities.
Trocar insertions for patients with past incisions often result in complications.
The Vietnam-Cuba Hospital’s Scientific Committee approved Khoi’s method due to its beneficial results including eliminating problems and complications of endoscopic surgeries as well as ensuring safety for patients with old incisions.
Yet, despite having received many awards and certificates of merit, the doctor has always considered his most important achievement to be the simplest one – of having served as a midwife for more than 30,000 pregnant women.
His devotion to work is nurtured by an uncomplicated philosophy: “The obstetric field is harsh and coarse like sand, but hardworking doctors, like industrious farmers, will grow seeds of life on its grounds.”
Born in the central province of Quang Binh, Doctor Phan Xuan Khoi was determined to become an obstetrician due to a deeply emotional episode early on in life.
“When I was ten, I saw my mother weaken and subsequently die from hemorrhage after giving birth to my little sister,” Khoi said.
“Losing mom at such a young age, I decided to study obstetrics to help poor women who often face risks during delivery.”
The loss served as a driving motivation for Khoi, who attended Hue Medicine University and graduated with the highest score in 1984.
He was invited to teach at the school, but refused and instead returned to his hometown and applied to work at the Vietnam-Cuba Hospital in Dong Hoi Town.
Since then Khoi has devoted himself not only to the obstetrics profession, but also to research to deliver the best care and treatment to his patients.
Golden hands
One of the doctor’s renowned exploits involves a surgery performed in the summer of 1999 that provincial people and local doctors still rave about.
During Khoi’s shift one night, the hospital admitted a patient who was in a critical condition due to hemorrhage.
Doctors then diagnosed that it was an impossible medical situation due to the rupturing of woman’s aorta.
Khoi, however, asked to perform a new method that he had studied for a long time, the ligation of hypogastric arteries, to stop the woman’s bleeding.
The hospital heads and the patient’s family approved the suggestion and at the end of a two-hour surgery, the patient survived.
Her family embraced Khoi and said, “You really have golden hands.”
With the surgery, Khoi made a name for himself among local doctors.
The surgical method, in fact, was first introduced at the end of the 19th century as one option to control life-threatening postpartum hemorrhage.
However, only a few obstetric surgeons have opted for this operation due to unclear reasons, according to a European journal.
Khoi’s successful application of hypogastric arteries ligation impressed doctors, professors and experts at a national conference on obstetrics held in Hanoi in the same year and the procedure was introduced into use at hospitals nationwide, helping to save many patients suffering from heavy bleeding.
Practical inventions
Working in the field for nearly 25 years, Khoi said he had personally witnessed many times blackouts occurring during vacuum extractor-assisted deliveries, which debilitate the expectant mother and suffocate the baby.
He was determined to improve the vacuum machine – a device used to assist the delivery of a baby when labor has not progressed adequately – so that it would be able to operate despite power cuts.
After working hard on the project, Khoi achieved his goal of creating a self-sufficient machine and was granted an exclusive invention certificate by the Ministry of Science and Technology for the initiative.
Another of Khoi’s innovation, the pozzi forceps, recently won the Vietnam Fund for Supporting Technological Creation prize in January.
The forceps aims to shorten the duration of endoscopic surgery for uterine fibroids and reduces the necessary incision from more than five centimeters to five millimeters.
According to local experts, Khoi’s US$1.80 forceps are as safe as high-tech machines used for this kind of surgery, which cost VND400 million ($25,000).
Ho Chi Minh City-based Tu Du Hospital Director Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong said, “This is really an achievement of intelligence and a valuable and meaningful invention that enhances Vietnam’s medical status.”
In addition to undertakings to improve medical instruments and machinery, Khoi also spent years to research a new approach to endoscopic surgery involving the insertion of an ultrasound-directed trocar for patients with old incisions.
Trocar is a hollow cylinder with a sharp pointed end, often three-sided, that is used to introduce cannulas and other similar implements into blood vessels or body cavities.
Trocar insertions for patients with past incisions often result in complications.
The Vietnam-Cuba Hospital’s Scientific Committee approved Khoi’s method due to its beneficial results including eliminating problems and complications of endoscopic surgeries as well as ensuring safety for patients with old incisions.
Yet, despite having received many awards and certificates of merit, the doctor has always considered his most important achievement to be the simplest one – of having served as a midwife for more than 30,000 pregnant women.
His devotion to work is nurtured by an uncomplicated philosophy: “The obstetric field is harsh and coarse like sand, but hardworking doctors, like industrious farmers, will grow seeds of life on its grounds.”
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