FIRST MEDICAL CLINIC – SUMMER 2022

First medical clinic at Cự Tân Parish

Three years after its founding, on 7 August 2022 the Medical Team held its first free clinic and medicine distribution at Cự Tân Parish, Diocese of Vinh. Taking part were doctors working in hospitals across the country, doctors who are former scholarship recipients, medical students on scholarship, and staff of the Xã Đoài General Clinic.

After Sunday morning Mass, the priests, the doctors, the scholarship students and the volunteers gathered at the parish to begin the clinic programme. Parishioners of Cự Tân and the surrounding areas came together in the parish grounds for the first steps of the day — registering and receiving their record books.

For this first clinic at Cự Tân, the Scholarship had 13 doctors examining patients across a range of specialities: internal medicine, paediatrics, ophthalmology, ultrasound, laboratory tests, electrocardiography and more. All the consultation rooms were simple partitions set up in the parish's old single-storey catechism building. The medical students were assigned to the rooms to assist the doctors in the speciality each of them is studying, and to walk elderly patients and small children right to the door so that they could be seen more easily.

The clinic ran all day, in a morning and an afternoon session, and saw nearly 700 patients — the elderly, the middle-aged and children, from within the parish and beyond. It rained in Cự Tân that day, which made the practical side of the work somewhat harder. But through the spirit of the doctors, the scholarship students and the volunteers, the Medical Team together made the clinic a real success, one that left much joy for everyone, above all for the people of Cự Tân Parish, and that gave fresh encouragement to the medical students of the Medical Team.

After the "Free clinic and medicine distribution" programme, the medical team discovered the case of Nguyễn Thị Thu (aged 7) of Tân Thanh Parish, Diocese of Vinh, who has a congenital heart condition and whose family is in especially difficult circumstances. The Our Lady of La Vang Scholarship, together with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Lân Hiếu, Dr. Đậu Quang Liêu and the parish priest of Tân Thanh, arranged for her treatment. On the morning of 20 October 2022, the cardiac intervention for Thu at Hà Nội Medical University Hospital was completed successfully.

The first clinic and medicine distribution programme of MLV-2011 embodies the faith, the hope, the concern and the hard work of many people. We sincerely thank Mr. and Mrs. Loan Hùng for funding the programme and making this meaningful clinic possible. We also sincerely thank Dr. Thanh Phạm, adviser to the Medical Team, who has always cared for us, accompanied us and been present with us throughout this first clinic. Thank you to the doctors, the scholarship students and the volunteers for their sacrifice and commitment. Thank you to everyone who cares about Education & the Future.

Here are some images from the first clinic programme in the summer of 2022 at Cự Tân Parish.