HCM CITY — Doctors at Hùng Vương and Thống Nhất hospitals in HCM City have performed emergency surgery on a pregnant woman suffering from life-threatening vaginal bleeding, saving the woman and her baby.

Bleeding is one of the complications caused by placenta previa.

The 31-year-old woman from Tân Bình District, who was 36 weeks pregnant, was brought to Thống Nhất Hospital for emergency treatment on July 9.

Dr Hồ Hữu Đức, deputy head of the general planning division at Thống Nhất Hospital, said the patient was bleeding continuously and her blood pressure had fallen.

A doctor diagnosed that she had placenta previa which occurs when a baby's placenta partially or totally covers the mother's cervix, the opening for the uterus. Doctors put her on a drip and tested her blood while they sent a Red Alert to ask for help from doctors at Hùng Vương Hospital.

Dr Võ Thị Mỹ Hạnh, head of the health examination division at Hùng Vương Hospital, said that after getting the Red Alert, doctors immediately left by ambulance.

Within five minutes, they were at Thống Nhất Hospital to perform surgery and removed the baby from the woman within 10 minutes, Hạnh said.

The male newborn weighed 2.4 kilogrammes and is in good condition. He is being taken care of at Hùng Vương Hospital, where the woman was transferred on Friday evening for further treatment.

Placenta previa can be detected when a pregnancy is 20 weeks old. Placenta previa that causes bleeding often occurs in the last three months of pregnancy. —VNS