SINGAPORE: “I think ...
I am going to die soon.” That was the thought running through 10-year-old Viet Tai’s mind after his cancer failed to respond to chemotherapy. Doctors in Hanoi, where Viet Tai is from, had given up hope.
Diagnosed with a rare type of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, treatments in Vietnam failed to stop or even slow the disease. But when his parents heard how treatment in Singapore might give their son a fighting chance, they sold their house and other assets and made the leap. It was but a hope, but as it turned out, Viet Tai became the first patient in the world to undergo a new experimental treatment at the National University Hospital (NUH).
With no previous patient, it was hard to know if it would work. It saved Viet Tai’s life. PAIN SPREADING ALL OVER Viet Tai was an active child.
He loved playing football and going on bicycle rides in his hometown of Hanoi. But when he was 10, he noticed a sharp pain in his little finger. He shook it off, thinking it was a small injury from an active lifestyle.
In a short time, the pain spread – throughout his hand, up onto his elbows and shoulders and then into his legs. The doctors in Vietnam initially thought it was arthritis. “They gave me treatment for arthritis, but after several months, I was not getting better and the pain was getting worse.
It spread all over my knees, my arms, other joints,” he said. “At the first hospital, they concluded I was not getting any better, so my father moved me .