That day, on a transit flight to Vietnam, Anh met a Vietnamese woman, H, from Bac Giang, at the Dubai International Airport. The woman was on their way from Czechia to Vietnam with two children and had health problems.

H was panicking as she did not have relatives accompanying her, and she had two children to take care of and was pregnant. She could not speak English or Arabic. Most people in the area of the airport were Vietnamese who could not speak English or Arabic, and could not help her. She had a high temperature and was bleeding. 

Realizing that the woman was an emergency case and needed medical aid, Anh spoke with H and met with medical workers at the airport to ask for help. He had to postpone his flight to Vietnam after two years of being away from his family.

While waiting for an ambulance to take H to the hospital, Anh encouraged H and took care of the two children. He realized that H and the kids were returning to Vietnam to celebrate Tet, and her husband would return later.

During the 24 hours of staying in Dubai, Anh spent his time helping H and her children, interpreting, following the procedures for H hospitalization, contacting H’s relatives in Vietnam, and contacting Vietnam’s Embassy in Dubai.

The doctors concluded that she had suffered a miscarriage and had to stay at the hospital for further monitoring before she could be discharged.

Vu contacted the airline and followed procedures to be sure that H could take the earliest possible flight to Vietnam. He waited for officers of the Vietnamese Embassy in Dubai to come to fulfill procedures for citizen protection and then booked his flight to Vietnam when everything was completed.

At 8 pm on December 13, he completed procedures for a flight to Vietnam. He kept in contact with H and the embassy's officers and heard that H’s situation had improved.

Vu had been sent by the President to serve as a Combat Staff Officer in the South Sudan mission. After more than a year of performing his international duty, he completed his mission and returned home this month (December).

Tran Thuong