At noon on Friday, inside Catheterization Room No. 2, tension filled the air. 

Sterile tools gleamed under the lights, monitors flickered, and a three-person team led by Dr. Do Nguyen Tin was preparing for the day's second procedure. 

Their patient was a seven-month-old infant born with a severe congenital heart defect.

Each operation often lasts around 90 minutes. 

The doctors' eyes rarely left the screen that tracked the threadlike catheter's path through the tiny heart, navigating to the precise spot that needs repair.

With steady hands and intense focus, the team completed five catheterizations on Friday alone — and successfully resuscitated two young children in critical condition. All were under two years old.

"This week, three of our procedures were livestreamed to Japan," Dr. Tin said, noting that the sessions help young doctors in Japan observe and learn in real time. 

"It's not just about the operation — it's about building confidence and skill in others."

The hospital's pediatric cardiology unit is known for pushing the boundaries of what's possible. 

In recent months, Dr. Tin and his colleagues — in partnership with Tu Du Hospital — successfully carried out nine fetal cardiac catheterizations, including one on a patient from Singapore. 

Health Minister Dao Hong Lan praised the achievement as not only a medical milestone but also a profoundly human one. 

"These fragile lives, suspended between life and death, have been brought back by the minds and hands of our doctors — with skill, compassion, and unwavering resolve," she said.

The breakthrough offers hope to thousands of expectant families and signals a new frontier in Vietnam's maternal-fetal medicine. 

With fetal intervention now a reality, doctors can begin to treat life-threatening heart conditions before birth, potentially transforming outcomes for newborns nationwide.