Vietnamese Doctors Trained at Severance Hospital Succeed in Ho Chi Minh City's First Lung Transplant

An average of 180 physicians from 34 countries receive specialized training each year for periods ranging from one month to two years

Advanced surgical techniques transferred under the guidance of Korean medical professionals

The lung transplant techniques developed at Severance Hospital are expanding beyond Korea and spreading throughout Southeast Asia.

Professor Youngho Yang of Severance Hospital (left) and Mr. Hoang Vinh Nguyen successfully performed the first lung transplant surgery in the southern region of Vietnam. Severance Hospital

On April 24, Severance Hospital announced that a Vietnamese medical fellow who trained in Korea has successfully performed the first lung transplant surgery in the southern region of Vietnam. The 41-year-old patient who received the lung transplant has reportedly made a full return to daily life.

Since 2014, Yonsei University Health System has provided training in 64 clinical specialties—including thoracic surgery, otolaryngology, and general surgery—to physicians from 92 countries, including the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand. Each year, an average of 182 physicians from 34 countries come to Yonsei University Health System for specialized training, with programs ranging from one month to two years.

Since achieving Korea’s first successful lung transplant surgery in 1996, Severance Hospital has maintained the highest annual number of such surgeries in the country. Last year, the hospital reached a milestone by performing Korea’s first 600 lung transplant cases.

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Binh and Mr. Nguyen Minh Dung, both graduates of medical schools in Vietnam, received lung transplant training in 2024 from Professor Lee Jingu of Severance Hospital’s Department of Thoracic Surgery. During their time at Severance Hospital, they were exposed to a variety of lung transplant cases, including patients with emergency status 0 awaiting transplants while on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), learning the diverse clinical scenarios and corresponding solutions involved in lung transplantation.

After returning to Vietnam, these medical fellows successfully performed a lung transplant in Ho Chi Minh City in November 2025. This was the first lung transplant ever performed in southern Vietnam. On the day of the surgery, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Binh was the lead surgeon, with Mr. Nguyen Minh Dung assisting. Professors Lee Jingu and Youngho Yang from Severance Hospital’s Department of Thoracic Surgery, who traveled to Vietnam at the request of the local team, also participated in the surgery and provided real-time, on-site guidance.

While organ transplantation has been actively performed in southern Vietnam, lung transplantation has been introduced relatively late due to the simultaneous need for donor organs from brain-dead patients, high-level surgical skills, and advanced critical care management. In particular, since living donor lung transplants are not realistically feasible, a brain-dead donor system and a nationwide organ allocation mechanism are essential. In southern Vietnam, such systems have only recently begun to function in earnest.

According to the medical team, this case demonstrates that, beyond the success of a single hospital, a nationwide collaborative system—covering everything from the occurrence of brain-dead donors to organ procurement, transport, and transplantation—is now operating in practice in southern Vietnam. In this process, Vietnamese medical staff trained at Severance Hospital acquired the necessary skills and performed the surgery themselves.

Professor Lee Jingu said, “In line with Severance Hospital’s mission to free humanity from disease through the love of God, we are dedicated to generously sharing our surgical expertise with both domestic and international medical professionals. Through continuous education, we aim to extend Severance’s healing touch to patients around the world.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.