Parents began complaining to Tuoi Tre last month that their epileptic children were now suffering from paralysis and mental disorders after costly surgeries conducted by the Binh Dinh General Hospital in the central province of the same name.

A father from Ho Chi Minh City, whose two-year-old son had recently undergone a surgery at Binh Dinh hospital, said in a telephone interview that before the surgery the child was like any other two-year-old except for the seizures associated with epilepsy.

“Doctors at HCMC-based Children Hospital No.1 said he had epilepsy and treated him with drugs,” said the father who wished to remain unnamed.

“When we found out that Binh Dinh General Hospital could conduct brain surgery to treat the disease, we brought him there,” he said.

Dr. Pham Ty, director of the hospital, then told the parents that the child’s skull was “too narrow,” an affliction he said required a procedure the success rate of which was over 85 percent, according to the father.

The doctor then removed two pieces of the boy’s skull 6-8 centimeters in diameter each, said the father, adding that the hospital fees cost nearly VND200 million (US$11,210) in total.

“After the surgery, my son’s brain became inflamed, the seizures continued and the boy no longer recognized his parents… doctors then said there was no chance he would ever talk as his brain had been damaged.”

Another HCMC parent said her 16-year-old daughter now has more frequent seizures and speech difficulties than she did before surgery at Binh Dinh in late June. She was hospitalized for more than a month at a total cost of VND70 million ($3,923), the parent said.

“At first Dr. Ty said my daughter wouldn’t need medication after surgery, but later said she would have to use drugs for another six months to two years,” the mother said.

A 27-year-old patient from the central province of Nghe An left the hospital half-paralyzed on September 11 after undergoing surgery for epilepsy, according to Tuoi Tre.

N.T.H, 33, from the southern province of Dong Nai, left in the same condition, plus brain damage, after an epilepsy surgery in June.

Tuoi Tre said some patients had even died after epilepsy surgery at Binh Dinh Hospital, which has conducted 19 operations on epilepsy patients since last year. Others were now partially paralyzed with recurring seizures.

Experts doubt Binh Dinh

President of Neurological Society of Vietnam, Vo Van Nho, said that although surgery is one of solutions to treat epilepsy, its success rate was very low.

Doctors have to be very cautious in deciding whether a patient needs a surgery or not and it can take them up to 10 years to keep track the patient before making such a decision, according to Nho.

Asked about Ty removing pieces of sinciput to “narrow skulls,” Nho said such surgeries were only suitable for babies under six months old. He also said that even then the procedure’s success rate was very low.

For those between six months old and two years old, such surgeries almost never work, he added.

Dr. Pham Quynh Diep, head of the pediatric department under HCMC Psychiatric Hospital, agreed with Nho, saying that only 20-30 percent of epilepsy patients need surgery because hey are resistant to drugs.

However, even at major international health clinics, the decision to perform such surgery needs to be informed by the opinions of many experts from several fields, including psychology, the doctor noted.

Diep, moreover, doubted Binh Dinh General Hospital’s diagnoses.

The children from HCMC and other provinces have all taken tests that showed they did not have “narrow skulls”, but the central hospital kept removing pieces of sinciput anyway, Diep said.

Even children with mild tics – a repetitive motor movement like eye blinking and throat clearing – were also diagnosed as having “narrow skulls” and were sent for surgery, the doctor added.

An unnamed source also told Tuoi Tre that Binh Dinh hospital’s epilepsy surgery procedure had yet to be approved by the provincial health department and the Ministry of Health.

In an interview with Tuoi Tre in June, Ty said he had spent ten years studying and working in France.

“Only newly-invented techniques need to get approval from the Ministry of Health, while it’s unnecessary for newly-applied ones to do so.

“We have conducted 50-60 surgeries to treat epilepsy and achieved the same results as the rest of the world,” said the doctor who was honored by the Asia Epilepsy Surgery Society for his scientific presentations at the association’s congresses in 2007 and 2008.

Source: Tuoi Tre