Patient Info: Vo Son Toan

Vo Son Toan, 12 years old, is the second child in the family of Mr. Vo Van Tan and Mrs. Pham Thi Lien. Toan started having pain in early March, 2006, and a tumor in his chest was then discovered. Leukaemia (M7) was diagnosed by doctors in Vietnam. During his first treatment, Toan’s insufficient platelets had caused a brain hemorrhage which prompted his parents to rush him to Gleneagles Hospital, Singapore in early July. According to evaluation performed by doctors at Gleneagles Hospital, Toan would have to go through two chemotherapy treatment periods that may last a month each, and subsequently, a radiation therapy and finally a bone marrow transplant. The cost for the last two treatments was estimated in a range of 50,000SGD to 100,000SGD, the maximum being the worse case if self-transplant cannot be carried out.

Toan has now gone through the chemotherapy treatments and is in fairly good condition. However, infection has happened once during one of the treatments and surgery had to be performed to remove the catheter used for chemotherapy operation. Toan has since developed a phobia for needles and would almost faint at the sight of one.

The family spent their first days in Singapore at the apartment of Mr. Nguyen Le Hung’s family. However, the one-bedroom and one-kitchen apartment, which is only 12m2, was too tiny to accommodate another family. In addition, the location of the apartment was quite inconvenient to commute to the hospital. Accommodation and transportation were problematic, but still not as much as the parents’ inability to speak English at all.

Hoang Oanh, one of the students who is a member of GFO, was aware of the case on an NUS student online forum and immediately informed other members for help. They started to work as interpreters for Toan’s family. Shift-work was arranged among Phuong Mai, Viet Tung and Hai Ninh to take care of the family and little Toan. They found a more convenient apartment for the family, helped the family for grocery shopping as well as assisting in dealing with the hospital’s procedures etc.