The Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients in Kien Giang Province, southern Vietnam is coordinating with the United States’ medical mission Mercer On Mission to provide musculoskeletal check-ups and fit prosthetic limbs to nearly 1,000 disadvantaged patients, free of charge, until June 2.

Mercer on Mission includes 53 professors, doctors, technicians, and students from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, U.S.A.

Thanks to the group, 600 low-income patients with musculoskeletal pain are being given free medical examinations and 360 individuals who lost arms or legs in traffic accidents or wars are being fitted with prosthetics. 

The medicine and medical equipment used by Mercer on Mission for the project is valued at nearly VND4.4 billion (US$172,000).

“With a prosthetic leg, I am able to continue fishing to support my family,” said Phan Thanh Son, a 62-year-old resident of Duong Dong Ward in Phu Quoc City who lost his leg during the war in Cambodia in 1988.  

“Local authorities gave me a prosthetic leg in the past, but it eventually broke. 

“I am so thankful to be provided with a free prosthetic leg by these foreign doctors. I can now walk on such a comfortable artificial leg."

Truong Thang Tran, chairman of the Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients in Kien Giang Province, said that the musculoskeletal check-up and prosthetic limb attachment program is meaningful, allowing the disabled to resume their normal lives and contribute to the province’s economic growth.

This is the third time Mercer on Mission has traveled to Kien Giang Province to provide free medical check-ups and treatment services to the poor.

In 2023, the group provided musculoskeletal check-ups and fitted prosthetic limbs to more than 1,200 poor patients.

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