Vietnamese woman saved after hour-long surgery in home’s attic

The operation was performed by doctors from the provincial 115 Emergency Center and Thai Binh Maternity Hospital, who responded to a call at 5:00 that day requesting emergency treatment for a woman with a severe stomachache in Thai Binh City, Thai Binh Province.

First responders diagnosed the 46-year-old woman’s symptoms as a result of tubal pregnancy, a pregnancy complication in which the embryo attaches outside the uterus.

The female patient is transported to an ambulance after an hour-long surgery at her house in Thai Binh Province, December 13, 2016.

Medics deemed the woman’s condition too critical for transport and quickly requested backup from Thai Binh Maternity Hospital for an on-site surgery.

Since the patient lived in a nine-square-meter attic on the third floor of a cramped boarding house with little furniture, the surgical team employed a mobile stretcher as the operation table and a suspended desk lamp as the surgical lighthead.

Medical students living in the same boarding house were also asked to help the operation by running small errands.

After nearly an hour of intense work, doctors were able to save the patient from her life-threatening condition and she was subsequently transported to Thai Binh Maternity Hospital for post-surgery recovery.

According to surgeons Nguyen Duy Quang and Vu Manh Cuong, three liters of clotted blood were removed from the patient’s abdomen during the operation and 1.5 liters of blood were transfused into her body.

Medical students in the woman’s boarding house were praised for realizing the patient’s high risk of circulatory collapse and not allowing her to be transported to the hospital by taxi after calling the emergency response team.