Hyosung's management, extends warmth-sharing to the family of a Vietnamese employee

On 6th, Hyosung's Vice Chairman Lee Sang-woon visited the Ehwa Women’s Univ. Mokdong Hospital to console a follow-up treatment patient of the overseas medical volunteer corps ‘Smile Expedition’, a Vietnamese youth Tran Duc Tai (Male, 18 years old).

Tran Duc Tai who is under treatment is a brother of Tran Thi Kim Phuong (Female, 24 years old) working in the Hyosung Vietnam Division. As his nervous system was damaged by the right skull dent caused by a traffic accident when he was 5 years old, the muscle of his left arm and two legs were contracted and he was mobility impaired.

Knowing about him through the Smile Expedition activity of the last year, Hyosung selected Tran Duc Tai as the target of the follow-up treatment program of Smile Expedition. Tran Duc Tai who arrived in Korea in the past November 30th, 2015 and entered the Ehwa Women’s Univ. Mokdong Hospital has underwent the neurosurgery operation and orthopedic operation and is now recovering. Tran Duc Tai underwent the skull restoration surgery to remove the risk of additional injury, and the arm and legs that had been impaired underwent a surgery and are now receiving rehabilitation treatment.

Vice Chairman Lee Sang-woon who visited to console Tran Duc Tai said, “Knowing the pitiful story of the young Vietnamese sister and brother, a company-level decision was made to support his follow-up treatment,” and “I wish they forget their past and their future will be full of happiness only.”

‘Smile Expedition’ is an overseas medical volunteer corps dispatched since 2011 to help development of the local communities of Hyosung's overseas work places, and the follow-up treatment program that invites those patients who are hardly curable by local medicine is under progress in its 2nd year since 2014. Hyosung gives full financial support for the follow-up treatment.

Also, Hyosung will invite to Korea a cleft lip and palate patient Pham Ngoc Hyuen (Female, 4 months old) who was encountered during the Smile Expedition's 2015 volunteer activity to giver her treatment. Pham Ngoc Hyuen is a baby who is impossible to do breast-feeding because of cleft lip and palate and she may have disabilities in normal food intake and speaking and suffer permanent face deformation in the future without early treatment. Hyosung will support Pham Ngoc Hyuen so that she can undergo the cleft lip and palate repair operation at the Gachon Univ. Gil Hospital in January.

Smile Expedition is the medical volunteer service given every year to Hyosung Vietnam and the nearby area. Since 2014, a program has been added, besides the local medical service, to invite patients who need surgeries to Korea and provide follow-up treatments. Last year, Dinh Minh Tam (Male, 19 years old) who could not use his arm due to a machine accident entered Korea and improved his conditions much through two operations and one month hospitalization, and returned to Vietnam. This year, to find patients who need help as much as possible, Hyosung searched for such patients prior to the activity of Smile Expedition through Hyosung Vietnam Division, and Tran Thi Kim Phuong who was working at the Management Headquarters of the Division recommended her brother Tran Duc Tai.

Phuong and Tai were born in the central Vietnam, and the family earned a living farming coffee and other crops. But, their income belonged to a low level even in Vietnam. One day in 2001 when Tai was very young, the whole family went out to help farming. As it rained heavily suddenly, Phuong was going home first with Tai, when an autobicycle driven by a drunken driver hit Tai. Then, Tai's life changed much to a bad direction. The perpetrator who ran from the accident scene was caught but they could not even get any compensation. With any luck at all, Tai's life was saved but he was left with severe disability. His skull was dented and he could not use his arm and legs because of damage to the central nervous system and muscular contraction.

As his brother got disabled in a poor family, Phuong studied hard. Studying was virtually the only way to live a better life, even slightly, under the difficult environment. Meanwhile, her father also died of a traffic accident in 2010. Her brother was almost killed and her father was killed by traffic accidents. Her mother did farming to support the sister and brother, but her family condition did not show any sign of improvement. However, as things got worse, Phuong studied harder and was able to enter the college majoring in Korean Language. During her college years, she received the scholarship granted by Hyosung thanks to her good academic record, and entered Hyosung Vietnam right after graduation thanks to the connection.

Tai finished only the elementary school because of his disability, but now he goes to a school for the disabled in Ho Chi Minh City from about 9 months ago. He is getting hope through learning painting and computer there, even though these are not official academic courses. “I want to get a job and help my mother.” He mentioned his mother several times perhaps because the mother who has suffered hardship in her entire life weighs on the mind of the sister and brother. After restoring health through the surgery as much as possible, he wants to take painting or computer he is learning now as a job, make a money, and meet a good woman for marriage and also help his mother.