Charges loom against FV

Mai Thu Huyen and Mai Thi Thu Trang, daughters of Mai Trung Kien who died on August 11 as a result of an appendectomy misdiagnosis, last week publicised their viewpoints on what FV said was a “difficult case”.

The family’s lawyers asked for a compensation of about $1.5 million. This  amount Trang said was  lower the level of $2 million insurance which FV Hospital would be paid in case of death caused by its doctors.

The family and the hospital have not reached an agreement on the compensation. The family has also pressed for criminal charges to be laid against the doctor allegedly at fault. According to Huyen and Trang, their 57-year-old father was brought to FV with symptoms of appendicitis on August 8.

They told doctors he used to have heart disease and was taking anticoagulation medicine.

An appendectomy was then performed. Two days later, Kien complained of chest and abdominal pains, but FV doctors did not conduct scans, tested his blood and diagnosed him with a heart attack.

FV then transferred him to Tam Duc heart hospital next door, where doctors found that his
appendectomy had internal bleeding and he was in critical conditions due to blood loss. He was brought back to FV immediately for another medical operation, but his heart stopped before surgery could happen.

Huyen’s and Trang’s viewpoint was Tam Duc doctors found internal bleeding immediately, while FV doctors failed to. In addition, when Tam Duc doctors proposed emergency surgery at this hospital, FV doctors refused and brought him back to FV.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health concluded August 29 that the reason of Kien’s death was internal bleeding after surgery and the hospital failed to make timely diagnoses and treatments on this internal bleeding.

On September 4, FV announced that his case was “a very difficult” case, and six highly professional doctors of FV joined hands to treat Kien, but none of them suspected of internal bleeding. This caused the incorrect diagnoses.