Seeking treatment for tuberculosis in Singapore

After seeking tuberculosis treatment in his home country for several months and seeing his weight drop to 33kg due to the illness, a Vietnamese patient was brought to Gleneagles Hospital in Singapore for life-saving treatment.

Mr Ng (not his real name) said that his tuberculosis, a lung infection that is caused by bacteria, was so advanced that most of the doctors he met in Vietnam had little hope for his survival. Yet his will to live was infallible and the young man is now able to carry on with his day-to-day life after a month of treatment.

From Vietnam to Singapore for treatment

Born into a family with two sisters in Bien Hoa city in Vietnam, Ng always had a persevering spirit. After his sister moved to the United States with her husband, he lived with his parents while studying at a university in Ho Chi Minh City. Unfortunately, Ng’s life took a turn for the worse when his mother passed away and he soon found himself very ill.

The first diagnosis was that he was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. Even though the first tuberculosis test came back negative, Ng continued to suffer from symptoms such as fever and fatigue, which led to him being admitted to hospital on the first day of the Vietnamese New Year.

Despite negative or inconclusive test results, Ng continued to suffer from symptoms such as fever and breathing difficulties. He began to find himself getting warded regularly, with his health deteriorating.

Eventually, Ng’s condition deteriorated to the point where he was coughing up blood several times a day and constantly feeling breathless. It was at this point that his family decided to bring him to Singapore for treatment. “Flying via commercial flight was too dangerous for his health, so we had medical evacuation,” recalls his sister.

Reaching Gleneagles Hospital at midnight, Ng was taken to the emergency room where the doctors assessed his situation. By this time, Ng was considered an acute case, where he had a high risk of dying on the operating table.

It was usually a situation where surgery was extremely challenging, but Ng was in a critical condition and coughing up blood non-stop. “We were really confused in this situation, but the doctor and us finally decided to take the risk and have surgery to remove his left lung,” says his sister.

Even though it took two surgeries, the doctors managed to successfully remove his infected lung completely.

On the second week of his recovery, Ng suddenly felt an acute pain in his abdomen and had difficulty breathing. Scans showed that his liver enzymes had increased and there was a build-up of fluid within his heart walls. He underwent a third surgery within a week to drain the fluid.

Throughout the entire ordeal, his family had feared that the situation was dire, but Ng’s determination never weakened. "Now the illness is gone and so is the pain,” he says. “I thank my family and my doctor for not giving up hope on me and standing by me in the face of certain death.”

Advanced pulmonary tuberculosis: a difficult case to treat

Ng is one of the most difficult cases encountered by the team. By the time the doctors saw him, his lung was badly destroyed by tuberculosis and he could not stop coughing up blood. “We explained to his family that due to his physical weakness, he had a high risk of dying on the operating table if he underwent surgery,” explains Dr Su. “However, he was coughing up so much blood at the time that he would almost certainly die without surgery.”

After much consideration, his family bravely gave us consent to remove his infected left lung, shares Dr Su. “The surgery was very difficult due to the patient’s critical condition and low blood pressure as a result of blood loss.”

Two weeks after the first two surgeries, Ng suffered from severe abdominal pains and shortness of breath. The ultrasound found an abnormal accumulation of fluid in his heart, and he had to be taken to the operating room for the third time.

Thankfully, all three surgeries were successful, and Ng’s condition is now stable, with good lung function. He still has to continue taking anti-infection medicine for a year but we are confident that he will make a full recovery.

Dr Su Jang Wen is a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon at Gleneagles Hospital in Singapore. He was chief fellow of the Thoracic Surgery & Lung Transplantation Programme at the Cleveland Clinic in the U.S. He performs a full spectrum of cardiac and thoracic conditions and a variety of heart surgeries including coronary artery bypass grafts, mitral valve repair/replacements, aortic valve replacements and aortic dissection repairs.

Gleneagles Hospital Singapore
6A Napier Road Singapore 258500
Tel: (+65) 6735 5000
www.gleneagles.com.sg

Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery Specialist
6A Napier Road #03-11
Gleneagles Medical Centre
Singapore 258500
Tel: (+65) 6473 3930