Once the top entrant to Hanoi Medical University with a near-perfect score of 29.5 out of 30, Dr Pham Van Phuc could have chosen many more comfortable and glamorous paths. Instead, he made a singular turn into one of the most demanding specialties in medicine.

The harder it is, the more he wants it

In the final days of the old lunar year, VietNamNet met doctor Pham Van Phuc (born in 1990), Deputy Director of the Intensive Care Center at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, to hear about the journey of a young doctor who has devoted his entire youth to the ICU.

Born and raised in Nghe An, Phuc says he has always had a “rather unusual personality”: the harder something is, the more he is drawn to it. Solving a tough math problem brought him particular joy. Perhaps that trait led him to the lecture halls of Hanoi Medical University, where he became the top entrant with an almost absolute score.

Throughout his years in medical school, each clinical rotation seemed to pull him toward the Emergency Department. There, he could directly save lives while accessing the most advanced medical technologies and techniques. Standing at the threshold between life and death, where every second matters, fascinated him.

After graduating as a general practitioner, while many classmates chose “hot” specialties such as cosmetic surgery or dermatology, Phuc stepped into infectious diseases - a field known for its intensity, pressure and risk of exposure. For him, it was not recklessness but a deliberate choice shaped by a love of challenge.

Upon completing his residency, he continued into intensive care, where the most critical patients are treated. In this setting, doctors require not only solid knowledge but also steel-like composure, absolute clarity and a heavy sense of responsibility behind every decision.

“The profession chooses the person,” he often smiles when asked why he did not take an easier road.

Yet for Phuc, it is more than a profession. It is a mission he pursues with intellect, skilled hands and a steadfast heart, holding on to each fragile life at the narrow line between survival and loss.

ICU - where there is no room for error

According to Dr Phuc, the ICU allows no mistakes. A delayed decision or an inaccurate judgment can cost a life. Overnight shifts, brief moments of sleep on a hastily placed chair in the corner of a ward, then springing up at the sound of an alarm - this is the familiar rhythm of an intensive care doctor.

In this field, physicians master advanced techniques such as ECMO, dialysis and therapeutic hypothermia. His meticulous, perfectionist nature makes him feel suited to the ICU, where even the smallest action must be absolutely precise. After more than a decade, he reflects: “ICU is truly where I belong.”

In his early years after graduation, the vast body of knowledge once overwhelmed him. But he chose to learn every day - from textbooks, from senior colleagues and from his own patients.

One case he remembers most vividly was a 50-year-old truck driver with severe pneumonia who spent three months in the ICU. For three months, the medical team monitored him around the clock. The moment he was discharged amid his family’s overwhelming joy was also when the ICU team finally breathed a sigh of relief. To this day, the patient remains in contact - a priceless emotional gift for those in the profession.

He also recalls a British couple treated for Covid-19 in early 2020. The 74-year-old husband, with a history of blood cancer, fell into severe respiratory failure. After more than a week of intensive treatment, he recovered and was discharged safely. Years later, whenever they return to Vietnam to visit their children, they still come to see the doctors who saved his life.

For Phuc, these are the invaluable gifts he gathers along his professional path.

Each early morning, as many begin a new workday, he leaves the hospital after a night shift. He returns home to the sound of roosters crowing, eyes still weary yet heart at peace.

Because for him, medicine is not merely a job but a quiet, enduring and meaningful battle - where every life saved marks the beginning of a complete joy, especially in the first days of a new year.

Phuong Thuy