How many people are lower middle class, and yet willing to sacrifice a third of their day to help those in need for absolutely nothing in return? I bet you won’t find anyone like that.
And yet, there is this young man who runs a free ambulance service at night while working a solidly blue collar job in the day. I find it remarkable how humble and dedicated he is to making a contribution to society, all at his own expense.
The Background Incident
Meet Lê Anh Tuấn: a 23-year-old man from Bình Dương, a province in southern Vietnam. Tuấn’s parents own a vegetable stall in an open-air market. Tuấn dropped out of school in his 8th grade to help out his parents.
Tuấn used to ride a motorcycle to transport vegetables from the wholesale market to his family stall. He would always make the trip at 2 a.m. He had a couple of accidents during this time: a dog dashed out in front, or a drunk driver crashed into him.
Tuấn noticed that whenever he fell off his bike in those wee hours, there were nobody around. And even if there were bystanders, they were hesitant to help because they either did not want trouble, or they were afraid of it being a staged robbery.
This bothers Tuấn a lot. He thinks of the all traffic victims lying on the street with nobody bothering to help.
Later, his family bought a minivan. During a trip in 2017, he came across the scene of an accident. The victim was in a pool of blood. He immediately stopped, and with the assistance from local residents, put the victim onto the back of his car and drove them to hospital.
After this, he continued to do the same whenever he saw an accident. He started posting the victim’s ID on social media to help notify their family. People saw this and began to call him whenever there was a traffic victim needing transportation to hospital.
Professionalising The Service
At first Tuấn hid this from his parents. One day, when he came home with the car smeared in blood, his mum freaked out. He is their only child, and of course they were dead worried! But then they supported him. It’s better their son contribute to society than to spend time on frivolous activities right?
Now here is the crazy part: some time later Tuấn managed to save up 100 million VND. He was a young man who liked motorcyles and speed (who doesn’t? I was obsessed with those crotch rockets too!). At first he planned to buy a new flashy bike with his savings. But then he decided the money should be better used to serve his charitable cause.
And so, he spent the money on another second-hand minivan! This time, he bought a first-aid kit, a stretcher, siren, medicines to turn it into a full-fledged ambulance. He learned about first aid to better care for the victims.
He even formed a team called Bình Dương SOS (Cứu nạn Bình Dương) and they have their own uniform and safety vest. Every day, he’d take calls from 7 pm – 3 am, before proceeding to his job at the vegetable stall.
Asking For Troubles
As they say, no good deed goes unpunished. Many times Tuấn has run into trouble. The victim’s personal belongings and valuables go missing, and they blame him. The victim bails from the hospital without paying the bills, and Tuấn is held responsible. The victim’s family mistake him for the perpetrator and beat him. Sometimes the victim is admitted to the hospital but they cannot reach their family, and so Tuấn must stay and do the paperwork, sometimes for hours.
Way, way too much hassle for trying to do good. But none of that deterred Tuấn — he started to equip cameras and he livestreams every incident to cover himself. Luckily over the past 3 years and over 300 victims transported, he has not been in any serious trouble.
His volunteer gig now spills into his personal life. He used to take his girlfriend out, and in the middle of the date he would get a call and immediately go home to drive his van to the accident scene. That’s too much trouble, and so now he would take his girlfriend on dates in the ambulance, so that he can be ready to move!
My Final Thoughts
It’s an interesting case. From my understanding of the law in other countries, if you try to help someone but end up exacerbating the situation, you can be held liable. For example, someone is on the ground with a back injury. You rush in to carry them onto your car and accidentally break their neck. The victim is now paralysed from the neck down. You can absolutely be held responsible for this.
A lot of places have a “Good Samaritan law” (luật Mạnh Thường Quân) to encourage bystanders to help and to shield them from legal liabilities if they inadvertently further injure the victim. I’m really not sure what the law is like in Vietnam, but Tuấn must have some sort of first-aid training for sure. And nobody is going to sue him.
Another interesting aspect is that in more developed countries, there is a ton of regulation around running an ambulance service. And yet in Vietnam, it’s apparent that just about anyone can start one! I don’t think 115 (the medical emergency hotline) even exists in many rural parts of Vietnam, so anyone who can help bring victims to hospital is already doing society a huge favour.
To me, the most incredible part of this story is Tuấn’s decision to just do something that brings absolutely zero benefit to him — not to mention the troubles he gets himself into! He spends a third of his day, sacrificing his sleep, his personal life, to volunteer. He even spends his own money on it — and he’s not rich at all.
I can understand more well-off people doing philanthropy, but Tuấn here is a solid blue collar worker who doesn’t even have a high school degree. Many times the victims offer him money but he always refuses.
The way Tuấn speaks to the interviewer, I get the impression that he considers himself just a regular person doing his best to contribute. Extremely humble man who wishes for neither fame nor wealth.
I gave Tuấn a call and asked to send him some money, but he refused. He said he’d post about the families of victims needing help and he’d rather me donate to them instead.
I am glad that I have come across Tuấn’s story. He is a massive inspiration to me, and I do hope that one day I can make myself only a fraction as useful and dedicated as he is.