A  Vietnam court has ordered that an eye hospital in Ho Chi Minh City compensate a Vietnamese American patient with US$46,700 for failing to comply with its own surgical procedure six years ago.

>> Vietnamese American loses $80,000 suit against hospital in Vietnam The appeal court of the Supreme People’s Court in HCMC on Wednesday accepted the appeal of Huynh Huu Thong, a 53-year-old American of Vietnamese origin, who claimed compensation from Thai Thanh Nam Eye Hospital Co., Ltd., which he said caused serious damage to his right eye in 2009. The amount of US$46,700 was determined to be the cost of treatment Thong had to pay in the U.S. due to the fault of the company's Saigon Eye Hospital, the appeal court said. The jury, after reviewing the lawsuit, concluded that the hospital deserved blame for failing to abide by the eye surgical process that it created for itself. Thong made the appeal after the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court at the first instance hearing on April 1, 2014 rejected his demand that the hospital pay him $80,000 as compensation for the damage caused to his right eye. At the hearing, Thong said the amount consisted of the expenses and income loss he incurred after a botched operation that affected his eye so seriously he had to return to the U.S. for treatment in 2009.

However, the court rejected Thong’s claim, affirming that there was no scientific ground to conclude that doctors at the hospital had caused serious damage to his right eye. Thong appealed the judgment, but at yesterday’s appeal hearing, he withdrew the demand for compensation for his lost income and travel cost, reducing the total claim to $46,700 as treatment cost only. According to the case file, Thong visited Vietnam in June 2009 and went to the hospital in District 1 for examination and treatment after experiencing weakening sight in his right eye.

He was diagnosed with a cataract and on June 5, he underwent an operation using Phacoemulsification (Phaco), a modern cataract surgical procedure in which the internal lens is emulsified with an ultrasonic hand piece and aspirated from the eye.

The cost of the operation was VND7.9 million ($379).

After that, Thong’s eyesight did not improve so he returned to the hospital, but the doctors only gave him some medicine and eye drops.

Thong later visited the Ho Chi Minh City Eye Hospital for examination, where doctors diagnosed corneal dystrophy, a group of rare disorders characterized by the bilateral abnormal deposition of substances in the cornea, the transparent front part of the eye. Doctors warned Thong that this complication could lead to blindness if it was not treated, he said in his complaint. Thong then returned to the U.S. for treatment of his eye problem, which he said had been brought about by malpractice at the Saigon Eye Hospital.

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