Early one monday morning, Trang A Phu, 39, went to a market a few hundred meters from Hue Central Hospital to buy vegetables and meat. The Hmong man then returned to the hospital's free kitchen area to prepare lunch. The daily food expenses for the two of them are less than 40,000 VND, with the hospital covering electricity, water, and gas. "The doctors advised me to cook myself for safety, and I followed their advice so my son would have the strength for treatment," Phu said.
Phu's family lives in Tan Chu village, Lung Phinh commune, Lao Cai province. He and his wife have three sons: the eldest is 19, and the other two are 15-year-old twins. Their main livelihood comes from farming. In 4/2025, the couple left their children with relatives in their hometown and went to Hue to work as laborers, earning about 10 million VND per month.
After working for five months, Phu received news that his youngest son, Trang Seo Chua, was experiencing continuous nosebleeds, prompting the couple to quit their jobs and return home. After medical checks in Hanoi, doctors diagnosed the 15-year-old boy with "small B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma," a type of malignant blood cancer. The child patient was referred to Hue Central Hospital for treatment.
Holding the medical records, the father, who is not fluent in Vietnamese, did not fully understand his son's condition. He said, "I thought he would be cured and we would return home in a few weeks."
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Trang A Phu and his son, Trang Seo Chua, at Hue Central Hospital, on 2/6. *Photo: Courtesy of interviewee* |
However, Seo Chua responded poorly to medication, and the chemotherapy process had to be extended beyond expectations. To date, the father and son have remained at the hospital for nine months.
Initially, Phu planned to buy takeout meals. Upon learning about the hospital's free kitchen, he registered. There, he consulted nurses about nutrition and observed other parents to learn how to select food. When his son was not receiving infusions, he used the time to shop and vary the menu to help his son eat better.
As a member of a poor household and an ethnic minority, Trang Seo Chua is exempt from hospital fees. However, because the treatment requires sending biopsy samples for gene analysis and purchasing additional off-list medications, a 50 million VND loan from relatives has been depleted. Currently, the father and son receive 2 million VND each month from the hospital's social work department and benefactors. To save money, Phu dedicates the better food portions to his son, while he eats rice, vegetables, and leftovers. Instead of renting a room for 3-4 million VND per month, he sleeps in the hospital corridor.
Over the past nine months, the father and son have visited home once, in early 2026. "Bus tickets for both of us cost about two million VND for a round trip. The transportation costs are high, so we have to stay here to save money for treatment," Phu recounted.
He plans to seek temporary work around the hospital for additional income once his son's health stabilizes.
Back home, his wife works on the fields and takes on odd jobs in the village. The 19-year-old eldest son is working, contributing money with his mother to repay the 50 million VND debt and send funds to Hue for his younger brother's medication.
From his hospital bed, Trang Seo Chua expressed that he misses home and school and hopes to be discharged soon. The 15-year-old boy wants to finish high school, learn a trade, and work to help his family.
"Despite the arduous journey of thousands of kilometers, I will find every way to cure my son," Phu stated.
Supporting child patients with rare diseases and difficult circumstances is an activity within the Sun of Hope program, implemented by the Hope Foundation. Every contribution from the community brings another ray of light to the nation's future generation. Readers can support the program here:
Program name: Your name - Sun of Hope
Program ID: 22966
Quynh Nguyen
