Viet Refugee Termed Too Ill for Transplant

An international effort to save the life of Vietnamese refugee Vo Tien Duc suffered a major setback Friday when doctors said the father of four is too ill for the bone-marrow transplant they had hoped would prolong his life.

The disclosure came just hours after Duc’s younger brother, Vo Hoang Van, arrived in the United States from Vietnam where the Hanoi government, in an unprecedented gesture, gave him permission to travel to donate marrow for the complicated procedure.

“The bone marrow transplant is not being considered at the present time,” said Dr. Richard I. Fisher, head of hematology and oncology at Loyola University Medical Center where Duc was transferred Friday. The private hospital is one of only two in Chicago able to perform a marrow transplant and the only hospital willing to accept Duc, who is unemployed and cannot pay for medical care, as a patient.

Massive Bleeding

Duc, 33, who fled Communist Vietnam more than seven years ago, suffers from aplastic anemia, a disease in which the bone marrow stops making blood cells. He has experienced massive internal bleeding this week and is being kept alive with transfusions of more than two pints of blood a day.

“At 33, Mr. Duc’s age is somewhat against him,” Fisher told reporters Friday. “He probably has a 30% to 40% chance of survival. His prognosis is critical.”

Doctors said it will take up to a month before they can determine if they can perform the transplant. Meanwhile, they are treating him with ATG--antithymocyte globulin--a rare drug that was unavailable when Duc was first hospitalized one month ago.

Meanwhile, doctors will continue to test Van, 18, to ensure that he is the best possible donor. He was selected from among four other siblings in tests done in Southeast Asia last week.

Duc has benefited from tenacious efforts by doctors and diplomats to slice through red tape and by the charity of doctors and institutions in three countries to provide medical assistance.