[Applause]
I’ve been coming to Vietnam for 27 and a
half years my wife is Vietnamese and
that’s the only Vietnamese I can speak
cinch out so if you speak English
put your hand up okay if you cannot they
have to interpret
thank you for letting an old person come
in and share with all your handsome
good-looking young people it’s a
privilege for me to come to this
university I’ve spoken in many places
all over the world but I think what I’m
sharing with you tonight is possibly
some of the most of the important
information that you will ever hear
I flew in last night from Queensland you
know where that is
Sunshine Coast which is the most
beautiful part of Australia and I live
just near the beach and we often walk
down on the sand and it’s just beautiful
white sand and clean water in Australia
and as you get along the sand you leave
footprints and you see where other
people have been walking sometimes they
have dogs and you see the dogs foot
marks and as you walk along and go for a
stroll and then turn around and come
back and you go back over and you see
the foot marks that you left when you
wonder in life when you look back as the
years come and go and Rob I what will be
the foot marks that you leave Vietnam is
a changing nation sometimes those
changes are really good and very
positive and sometimes they’re not I’ve
been looking at some of the statistics
in what I do
in the last 12 months
in Vietnam there have been absolutely
thousands of deaths on the roads
across Vietnam not just motorcycles
pedestrians trucks many things
there’s been a dramatic increase not
decrease in a number of drownings about
this time last year my wife was googling
through in the lounge room because being
Vietnamese she gets on the looking at
the Vietnamese news and she pulled up a
an article from a newspaper in the north
of Vietnam and it brought tears to my
eyes as she read it thirty two teenagers
went for a swim just a fun school time
out eight on them came out of the water
twenty four drowned why they’re the sort
of statistics that as you look through
the newspapers every day you see these
things heart attacks are happening
regularly I was walking down the street
today only a short time after meeting
with a couple of your organizing his
staff and as I walked down the street to
get a haircut I needed a haircut I saw a
bunch of Korean tourists and one of them
was looking very unwell and however
while I was walking past and all the
people who are with him stood around and
someone grabbed a plastic chair and then
they looked at him and I thought I need
to stop so I stopped I said are you okay
nobody spoke English so I didn’t worry
about their reactions I just took the
guy’s wrist and felt his pulse and his
pulse was okay so I said water we got
water and we put it on a face washer and
we put it on his neck and I said to him
ten minutes ten minutes
stay and I went off and did what I had
to do it happens all the time in Vietnam
you see road accidents you see people
having medical emergencies and the
general response is everybody gathers
right
the big circle it’s an opportunity to
plant your mobile phone and so all
selfie it happens
nobody does anything we see a huge
increase in the number of medical
emergencies from things that are not
related to traffic or not related to
other things sometimes their allergies
sometimes there’s correlated sometimes
there’s things and things like this and
the statistics in Vietnam are that there
are literally thousands of these and
they all rock up in the hospitals I’ve
been in many of your hospitals not just
in the operating theaters but just
walking through casualty and it is
wobble to wall people sitting there many
of you have probably been there
yourselves waiting for a doctor you’re a
number you’re not a person because of
the numbers that go through there and
it’s a staggering staggering toll that
just keeps on increasing I do a lot with
ophthalmology we have a scholarship that
we bring young doctors to Australia for
training and the number of eye injuries
in Vietnam there’s something like a
million in the last 12 months of people
who have gone blind permanently from
trauma related injuries sometimes that’s
writing along the road and having things
strike them in the eye
sometimes it’s work-related very rarely
is it medically oriented
usually it’s trauma accident and the big
problem is that they’re not treated
people don’t know what to do when I
teach first night the first thing I say
if it was you get something in your eye
your immediate reaction is to do this
don’t don’t because all you’re doing is
pushing whatever that is
into your eye and that’s what happens so
at the time people get to an eye doctor
the damage has become so so
their chances of saving their sight is
diminished dramatically it’s happening
right across Vietnam I’ve had people
brought to me in the our hospitals here
in Ho Chi Minh City and they’re saying
please can you save this one sights and
you took one look at it you have to
shake your head and say look I’m sorry
I’m really sorry why did you not bring
them to me two years ago because it’s
obvious that these symptoms have been
with this person for that long they said
our we didn’t think it was going to be
that bad we didn’t think it would
continue and one young lady who is
actually a relative with the director of
one of the big hospitals in Ho Chi Minh
City will never see her either her eyes
again for the rest of the life and it’s
preventable most of the accidents most
of the injuries most of the medical
occurrences that take place in Vietnam
they are preventable when they happen if
treatment follows quickly then the
output in the outcome is usually very
good when people do nothing nothing
happens that’s when you have disasters I
was interviewed by one of the big
television channels in Australia and the
reporter a young enthusiastic attractive
young lady a bit like EMC said to me
doctor what makes you think you can make
a difference in Vietnam good question I
said to her what makes you think I can’t
you are the one who determines your
footprints you are the only one who can
control what happens with your life and
you are also the one who can have a
great influence on what happens in the
lives of others let me tell you some of
the consequences of the statistics that
I’ve been talking about firstly that
they’re real people read accident
victims heart attack victims drowning
victims the thing that changed my life
is a lady in Donghai Children’s Hospital
who had two children some of these
fellows behind they’re just footprints
of my life in Vietnam
one of those slides is a lady with a
little baby with green coverings was
going back about 25 26 years she was in
Donghai Children’s Hospital and she had
two children there that night with viral
meningitis the hospital had no equipment
to treat it no drugs it was as hot as
anything viable plastic sheeting on a
bed in about 35 or 40 degree
temperatures not even a fan and they
could do nothing in the morning when I
came back one of the little children was
dead I couldn’t speak Vietnamese she
couldn’t speak English I could just hold
I decided that if I don’t make something
happen in this country
it won’t happen I went back to Australia
and I rang around and I started an
organization which was then called
Project Vietnam it’s now heart reach
Australia and over 28 years I’ve
answered what that television reporter
asked me by making things happen and now
history if you look at our website
heartbeats Australian TOCOM will show
you we were the first NGO to sign
agreements with the Ministry of Health
we were the first ones to build the
medical clinic for poor families then
the Mekong Delta we built the first ever
medical ambulance boats we know how much
water there is around Vietnam most of
the poor people live on or near the
water usually putrid stinking infected
water and they can’t get the hospitals
so said where’s your medical ambulance
boats they said what we we don’t have
any in Vietnam it said ok we’ll build
one two years ago we brought it out here
we’ve been able to develop programs of
first aid and start teaching high school
students how many people here know CPR
put your hand up that’s about the
average in Vietnam 1%
CPR is the one thing that could’ve saved
most of those 24 young people who died a
year ago CPR is the one thing that you
could use that maybe save your
grandmother or your grandfather or
strangers when they’re on the floor when
the number of accidents in kitchens and
workshops and out in the rice fields
broken bodies lacerations fractured
skulls if you know what to do
you can slash the number of people who
queue up in emergency wards in hospitals
by 50% because you’ve already been able
to do what the doctors get to do eight
hours later I look inside the back of a
brand new ambulance all excited that
suddenly Vietnam is starting to get some
modern ambulances and I opened the door
and what did I see two guys sitting in
shorts playing cards no equipment just a
nice flash red light and violence many
I wouldn’t challenge you guys and new
girls to make a difference in Vietnam
it’s an amazing country I think I fell
in love with Vietnam before I fell in
love on the wife and it’s it’s my second
home I’ve got adopted kids all over
Vietnam so many kids that we sponsor
call me daddy and it’s it’s just
beautiful to be able to go and visit
them and next week I go up to the middle
of Vietnam when they’ve had the floods
and there’s a bunch of kids up there
that we’ve been able to get sponsors to
University but I’d say to them all you
need to learn CPR you need to learn
emergency medicine you need to know that
if you have an accident this is how you
treat us it is so simple it is so easy
fear is what stops people reacting what
if I do it wrong it doesn’t matter what
if you don’t do it at all
then it will matter so the challenge
really is whether or not Vietnam the
beautiful country Vietnam that is now
becoming an economic strength globally
these are to rise out of the ashes of
all that’s been emerging from and start
to develop the skills in health and
hygiene nutrition and road safety and
water safety learn the skills of saving
lives learn how to deal with emergencies
be the person who says I am not afraid
to make something happen I don’t care
what someone says if I make a mistake
I’d be more scared if I did nothing and
they died there’s a young girl 16 years
old in Dong die and she was hit by a
truck
big 20-ton track and run over and I
visited her in the hospital in Ho Chi
Minh City been down hospital and she was
literally blue from a head-to-toe face
was puffed up and she couldn’t hardly
breathe I had just brought eight
dialysis machines from Australia and
donated them to the hospitals she was
hooked up to a dialysis machine because
her body had shut down and could not
pump through the one through her kidneys
two days later she was alive and she
knew I need two words in English thank
you thank you that’s why we do what we
do I don’t make money I don’t get hired
I never have we raised money to do what
we do at the end of the day it’s not how
rich you are but what you contribute to
the place for you and even the people
around you I’m going to offer to the
University here the opportunity of
everybody who’s in this auditorium
during a first-aid course I’d like to
I’m here for two weeks and I’d like to
say to your faculty I will come here and
give a free Thursday course we have a
manual I wrote here in English and
Vietnamese and I’m happy to come here
and do that the whole lot of you and
your first day of course so you can
learn the skills and know what to do and
how to do it and have the confidence
that whatever happens in your life and
your family you
not be afraid to make a difference it’s
your choice you can make a difference in
the future here now
it’s not just the economy of Vietnam
that’s critical it’s the health and the
safety and the security and the life did
you can put your hand in your handprints
and your fingerprint alongside your
footprint thank you right [Applause]
I’ve been coming to Vietnam for 27 and a
half years my wife is Vietnamese and
that’s the only Vietnamese I can speak
cinch out so if you speak English
put your hand up okay if you cannot they
have to interpret
thank you for letting an old person come
in and share with all your handsome
good-looking young people it’s a
privilege for me to come to this
university I’ve spoken in many places
all over the world but I think what I’m
sharing with you tonight is possibly
some of the most of the important
information that you will ever hear
I flew in last night from Queensland you
know where that is
Sunshine Coast which is the most
beautiful part of Australia and I live
just near the beach and we often walk
down on the sand and it’s just beautiful
white sand and clean water in Australia
and as you get along the sand you leave
footprints and you see where other
people have been walking sometimes they
have dogs and you see the dogs foot
marks and as you walk along and go for a
stroll and then turn around and come
back and you go back over and you see
the foot marks that you left when you
wonder in life when you look back as the
years come and go and Rob I what will be
the foot marks that you leave Vietnam is
a changing nation sometimes those
changes are really good and very
positive and sometimes they’re not I’ve
been looking at some of the statistics
in what I do
in the last 12 months
in Vietnam there have been absolutely
thousands of deaths on the roads
across Vietnam not just motorcycles
pedestrians trucks many things
there’s been a dramatic increase not
decrease in a number of drownings about
this time last year my wife was googling
through in the lounge room because being
Vietnamese she gets on the looking at
the Vietnamese news and she pulled up a
an article from a newspaper in the north
of Vietnam and it brought tears to my
eyes as she read it thirty two teenagers
went for a swim just a fun school time
out eight on them came out of the water
twenty four drowned why they’re the sort
of statistics that as you look through
the newspapers every day you see these
things heart attacks are happening
regularly I was walking down the street
today only a short time after meeting
with a couple of your organizing his
staff and as I walked down the street to
get a haircut I needed a haircut I saw a
bunch of Korean tourists and one of them
was looking very unwell and however
while I was walking past and all the
people who are with him stood around and
someone grabbed a plastic chair and then
they looked at him and I thought I need
to stop so I stopped I said are you okay
nobody spoke English so I didn’t worry
about their reactions I just took the
guy’s wrist and felt his pulse and his
pulse was okay so I said water we got
water and we put it on a face washer and
we put it on his neck and I said to him
ten minutes ten minutes
stay and I went off and did what I had
to do it happens all the time in Vietnam
you see road accidents you see people
having medical emergencies and the
general response is everybody gathers
right
the big circle it’s an opportunity to
plant your mobile phone and so all
selfie it happens
nobody does anything we see a huge
increase in the number of medical
emergencies from things that are not
related to traffic or not related to
other things sometimes their allergies
sometimes there’s correlated sometimes
there’s things and things like this and
the statistics in Vietnam are that there
are literally thousands of these and
they all rock up in the hospitals I’ve
been in many of your hospitals not just
in the operating theaters but just
walking through casualty and it is
wobble to wall people sitting there many
of you have probably been there
yourselves waiting for a doctor you’re a
number you’re not a person because of
the numbers that go through there and
it’s a staggering staggering toll that
just keeps on increasing I do a lot with
ophthalmology we have a scholarship that
we bring young doctors to Australia for
training and the number of eye injuries
in Vietnam there’s something like a
million in the last 12 months of people
who have gone blind permanently from
trauma related injuries sometimes that’s
writing along the road and having things
strike them in the eye
sometimes it’s work-related very rarely
is it medically oriented
usually it’s trauma accident and the big
problem is that they’re not treated
people don’t know what to do when I
teach first night the first thing I say
if it was you get something in your eye
your immediate reaction is to do this
don’t don’t because all you’re doing is
pushing whatever that is
into your eye and that’s what happens so
at the time people get to an eye doctor
the damage has become so so
their chances of saving their sight is
diminished dramatically it’s happening
right across Vietnam I’ve had people
brought to me in the our hospitals here
in Ho Chi Minh City and they’re saying
please can you save this one sights and
you took one look at it you have to
shake your head and say look I’m sorry
I’m really sorry why did you not bring
them to me two years ago because it’s
obvious that these symptoms have been
with this person for that long they said
our we didn’t think it was going to be
that bad we didn’t think it would
continue and one young lady who is
actually a relative with the director of
one of the big hospitals in Ho Chi Minh
City will never see her either her eyes
again for the rest of the life and it’s
preventable most of the accidents most
of the injuries most of the medical
occurrences that take place in Vietnam
they are preventable when they happen if
treatment follows quickly then the
output in the outcome is usually very
good when people do nothing nothing
happens that’s when you have disasters I
was interviewed by one of the big
television channels in Australia and the
reporter a young enthusiastic attractive
young lady a bit like EMC said to me
doctor what makes you think you can make
a difference in Vietnam good question I
said to her what makes you think I can’t
you are the one who determines your
footprints you are the only one who can
control what happens with your life and
you are also the one who can have a
great influence on what happens in the
lives of others let me tell you some of
the consequences of the statistics that
I’ve been talking about firstly that
they’re real people read accident
victims heart attack victims drowning
victims the thing that changed my life
is a lady in Donghai Children’s Hospital
who had two children some of these
fellows behind they’re just footprints
of my life in Vietnam
one of those slides is a lady with a
little baby with green coverings was
going back about 25 26 years she was in
Donghai Children’s Hospital and she had
two children there that night with viral
meningitis the hospital had no equipment
to treat it no drugs it was as hot as
anything viable plastic sheeting on a
bed in about 35 or 40 degree
temperatures not even a fan and they
could do nothing in the morning when I
came back one of the little children was
dead I couldn’t speak Vietnamese she
couldn’t speak English I could just hold
I decided that if I don’t make something
happen in this country
it won’t happen I went back to Australia
and I rang around and I started an
organization which was then called
Project Vietnam it’s now heart reach
Australia and over 28 years I’ve
answered what that television reporter
asked me by making things happen and now
history if you look at our website
heartbeats Australian TOCOM will show
you we were the first NGO to sign
agreements with the Ministry of Health
we were the first ones to build the
medical clinic for poor families then
the Mekong Delta we built the first ever
medical ambulance boats we know how much
water there is around Vietnam most of
the poor people live on or near the
water usually putrid stinking infected
water and they can’t get the hospitals
so said where’s your medical ambulance
boats they said what we we don’t have
any in Vietnam it said ok we’ll build
one two years ago we brought it out here
we’ve been able to develop programs of
first aid and start teaching high school
students how many people here know CPR
put your hand up that’s about the
average in Vietnam 1%
CPR is the one thing that could’ve saved
most of those 24 young people who died a
year ago CPR is the one thing that you
could use that maybe save your
grandmother or your grandfather or
strangers when they’re on the floor when
the number of accidents in kitchens and
workshops and out in the rice fields
broken bodies lacerations fractured
skulls if you know what to do
you can slash the number of people who
queue up in emergency wards in hospitals
by 50% because you’ve already been able
to do what the doctors get to do eight
hours later I look inside the back of a
brand new ambulance all excited that
suddenly Vietnam is starting to get some
modern ambulances and I opened the door
and what did I see two guys sitting in
shorts playing cards no equipment just a
nice flash red light and violence many
I wouldn’t challenge you guys and new
girls to make a difference in Vietnam
it’s an amazing country I think I fell
in love with Vietnam before I fell in
love on the wife and it’s it’s my second
home I’ve got adopted kids all over
Vietnam so many kids that we sponsor
call me daddy and it’s it’s just
beautiful to be able to go and visit
them and next week I go up to the middle
of Vietnam when they’ve had the floods
and there’s a bunch of kids up there
that we’ve been able to get sponsors to
University but I’d say to them all you
need to learn CPR you need to learn
emergency medicine you need to know that
if you have an accident this is how you
treat us it is so simple it is so easy
fear is what stops people reacting what
if I do it wrong it doesn’t matter what
if you don’t do it at all
then it will matter so the challenge
really is whether or not Vietnam the
beautiful country Vietnam that is now
becoming an economic strength globally
these are to rise out of the ashes of
all that’s been emerging from and start
to develop the skills in health and
hygiene nutrition and road safety and
water safety learn the skills of saving
lives learn how to deal with emergencies
be the person who says I am not afraid
to make something happen I don’t care
what someone says if I make a mistake
I’d be more scared if I did nothing and
they died there’s a young girl 16 years
old in Dong die and she was hit by a
truck
big 20-ton track and run over and I
visited her in the hospital in Ho Chi
Minh City been down hospital and she was
literally blue from a head-to-toe face
was puffed up and she couldn’t hardly
breathe I had just brought eight
dialysis machines from Australia and
donated them to the hospitals she was
hooked up to a dialysis machine because
her body had shut down and could not
pump through the one through her kidneys
two days later she was alive and she
knew I need two words in English thank
you thank you that’s why we do what we
do I don’t make money I don’t get hired
I never have we raised money to do what
we do at the end of the day it’s not how
rich you are but what you contribute to
the place for you and even the people
around you I’m going to offer to the
University here the opportunity of
everybody who’s in this auditorium
during a first-aid course I’d like to
I’m here for two weeks and I’d like to
say to your faculty I will come here and
give a free Thursday course we have a
manual I wrote here in English and
Vietnamese and I’m happy to come here
and do that the whole lot of you and
your first day of course so you can
learn the skills and know what to do and
how to do it and have the confidence
that whatever happens in your life and
your family you
not be afraid to make a difference it’s
your choice you can make a difference in
the future here now
it’s not just the economy of Vietnam
that’s critical it’s the health and the
safety and the security and the life did
you can put your hand in your handprints
and your fingerprint alongside your
footprint thank you right [Applause]
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