Word of the “healer” Tran Van Muong, also known as Ba Muong, of An Giang Province’s Phuoc Hoa Village, is continuing to spread as an alternative to conventional medicine.
Ba Muong’s wife said her healer husband was seriously ill himself a few months ago. But after VND30 million (US$1,685) worth of treatment he has recovered and now has a “special treating skill.”
Villagers from surrounding districts and provinces come to his house every day, queuing to see Muong, who is nearly 50 years old, for him to spit water on their ailing parts.
Hai Bon of An Phu District, who has a blocked cardiac valve, stopped using prescriptions and came to Muong to receive “special treatments” for free.
Noi of Cho Moi District, who has a very bad liver, said this was his last hope as doctors in Ho Chi Minh City couldn’t cure him.
People have traveled from far and wide from provinces including Kien Giang, Dong Thap and Vinh Long and even HCMC to see the man with the magic lips.
Phuoc Hoa Village’s deputy chief Nguyen Hoang Tam estimated that some days there was as many as 2,500-3,000 people in the queue.
He also said he had asked the district authority to give the village leaders permission to stop Ba Muong from treating people but the district hadn’t stepped in.
Chairman Ngo Van Thi of Phuoc Hung Commune, however, said he had already asked local officials to stop the practice.
In April, hordes of people also swarmed a small shrine in Da Nang City’s Truong Dinh Village to pray and drink the water from its well following rumors that it could cure all diseases.
A HCMC medical expert said that miracle healers like Ba Muong were popular because of overcrowding in hospitals and high medical costs.
“It’s obvious that meeting charlatans or quacks is easier than meeting doctors,” Dr. Tang Ha Nam Anh of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy wrote in a recent article published in Tuoi Tre’s weekly publication.
“Public hospitals are always overloaded and there are few guidelines to help patients apply for a health examination or find departments they need to visit.
“Costs of health care are another headache with thousands or millions of dong for each prescription. Charlatans, on the other hand, provide cheap ‘magic cures’ and promises of single treatment cures.
Such healers promote themselves by word of mouth, his article said.
Reported by Tien Trinh |
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