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sanooku wrote:

I know there are quite a few good places in Saigon, but I'm trying to find somewhere local that I can visit two or three times a week.

A bit of background about my injury. I was in a bad motorbike accident 6 weeks ago. I was going straight at an intersection (traffic lights), two cars coming from the opposite direction started turning left. I braked using both front and back brakes.

The next second (if that) I was getting up from floor. Looked back and saw huge Diesel/oil spill behind me. Figured the front brake must have locked. Tried to pick up motorbike. No joy. Unbearable pain from left arm and shoulder. A passer by moved my motorbike from middle of the junction to roadside. I moved to the roadside pretty sharpish as well.

I had surgery with Open Reduction Internal fixation (ORIF) surgery with metal plate and screws to fix fracture the next day at Vinmec Hospital in Saigon. Dr Khoan was the surgeon. He sold me this surgical procedure saying I will be 'playing sport in 2 months'. Somehow I doubt it. Several complications have come up. X-rays up to now show rotational alignment is way off. When I stand in front of a mirror with palms facing out I can see that my lower left arm is pointing inwards when my right arm is pointing outwards from body. When I phoned Dr Khoan and told him he just said 'apply some cream'. Probably didn't understand. I then sent him zalo message with an example picture showing problem. He then told me to stand in front of mirror and compare with other arm (which I had done already). The main advantage of OSIF is that you can start using the injured arm pretty much straight away. However, I'm experiencing pretty much every downside as well, including stiff shoulder and numbness in the little finger.

I know that criticizing medical professionals (especially these days)  is worse than ..........., but must say if you are looking at getting a medical procedure like this done, Vietnam is probably not the place. I've since met Dr Phat at FV hospital. Sure he looks the part, but I don't think he could have done any better. When I raised the rotational malalignment, his immediate response was to get two metal prods and try to demonstrate that depending on the angle of the x-ray we may see more malalignment from one angle than the other.

The whole problem of malalignment happened because Dr Khoan only reduced the fracture from one angle. When I asked him if he used fluoroscopy (which is pretty standard in these procedures - at least in the West), he said that's only used for closed fractures.

If you can afford it, get proper health insurance with medical evacuation from a reputable company. But before taking out policy, check with them what happens if the procedure is available in Vietnam but also in say for example Singapore. Can you pick to do it in Singapore or will the insurer only pay for the procedure to be done in Vietnam. Best check this beforehand.

BTW, be extremely careful when using front brake at all. Going by you should only be using back brake. Bit extreme, but I can see where they are coming from. With front brake when you go down it all happens in a split second. I must have put my left hand out to break the fall (there were grazes on my left hand). Don't have any recollection of doing it through.

See my other thread (or is it a sticky? since there are no replies...or nobody is interested...or it's never happened to anyone? LOL):

//forum/viewtopic.php?id=927797

Havent found one in Vung Tau. Did see a physiotherapist at work in my gym in Vung tau last week through. Asked the rate from his colleague, he said 400k vnd per session. May try him.

PM me if you want details of the gym.