Kim Long village is the only life Hoa has ever known. Enter Sister Linh Dao, a member of the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose and a nurse at O’Connor Hospital, who changed Hoa’s life in ways still to be determined.
“I was missioned to Kim Long during the summer of this year,” Sister Linh reports quietly. “I took note of Hoa’s rare condition and proceeded to share the situation with others when I returned home.”
Sister Michele Randall, a Daughter of Charity who serves as vice president of mission integration at O’Connor, heard the story and jettisoned into action. Within days, members of hospital administration and a group of caring physicians agreed to donate services to save Hoa’s life.
“We were able to organize the medical and facility services quickly,” Sister Michele recalls, “but before anything could be done, we had to get Hoa here.”

Kiet Ha, director of business development at O’Connor, stepped in and coordinated a process fraught with bureaucratic red tape. “It felt as if the endless stream of paperwork would never end,” he says, “but we were able to move through the necessary procedures and bring Hoa and her father, My Tran, here in a timely manner.”
He cites members of the Vietnamese and Catholic communities in San Jose for pulling together and leading the successful effort to raise funds, organize transportation, housing, and other services needed by Hoa and her father during their lengthy stay in the Bay Area.
With gentle care and compassion, hospital staff steered Hoa through a battery of lab tests, a CT scan, and an MRI. Physicians concerned about Hoa’s low weight, incorporated Ensure into her daily diet, adding 10 pounds to her slight frame within an eight week time period.

On Thursday, November 15 at 9 a.m., O’Connor Hospital plastic surgeon Hien Nguyen placed tissue expanders under the skin above Hoa’s forehead to stretch and expand the tissue. Subsequent weekly office visits will provide injections of Saline through two ports that will inflate the expanders, and thus stretch the skin. Once the estimated 6-8 week process is completed, neurosurgeon Peter Nguyen will resect the tumor, remove the expanders, close the defect by placing a cement “cap” over the exposed opening and cover the cap with Hoa’s expanded skin tissue.
Should the tissue not expand to the optimal length to cover her scalp, then a third procedure may be needed and will require a skin graft, skin regeneration and hair replacement. According to Dr. Hien Nguyen, “This kind of tumor is very rare, and for a doctor is a once-in-a-lifetime case. The skin expansion surgery is not as rare, but is not performed often.”

Once released from the hospital, Hoa can return home to her village in Vietnam, where loved ones await the return of their beautiful girl. The surgeons and anesthesiologists involved in the case are performing procedures free of charge to the Tran family. O’Connor Hospital is donating all of its services, including the operating room, MRI, CT scan and all laboratory fees.

Located in San Jose, O’Connor Hospital – (http://www.oconnorhospital.org) is an acute care, not-for-profit, Catholic community hospital serving the Bay Area. The award-winning facility is one of six hospitals and medical centers throughout California comprising the Daughters of Charity Health System.