The bell at Chu Van An Primary School had just rung, signaling the end of an emergency first aid workshop, when reality caught up with the curriculum. Out in the schoolyard, Dao Minh Khoi, a fourth-grader in class 4D, suddenly suffered a severe nosebleed.
In the past, such an incident would have triggered immediate panic. This time, the boy sat perfectly upright, tilted his head slightly forward, and firmly pinched his nostrils. He was mimicking the exact physical instructions he had memorized just moments earlier. Around him, classmates bypassed the usual screaming and instead ran directly to alert their teachers and campus medical staff.
For Dinh Thi Hong Sang, a teacher at the school, the incident was a quiet triumph over a constant, invisible anxiety. In any school environment, she explains, the threat of traumatic injury is a permanent fixture of the workday. Danger waits in a slick corridor, a wet restroom floor, a crowded staircase, or the sharp corner of a desk. It is often sparked by a student's fleeting curiosity with an electrical outlet. Teachers carry the heavy emotional burden of these risks every day, usually with very little formal training on how to handle the immediate fallout.
This pervasive vulnerability is what drove the creation of AIDFIRST, a youth-led community project that is rapidly reshaping emergency response in Vietnamese schools. Founded by Doan Dao Minh Duc, a student at South Saigon International High School, the initiative focuses on a medical reality known to paramedics as the "golden time."
According to Le Hoang Long, a veteran paramedic with the Ho Chi Minh City 115 Emergency Center, the minutes immediately following a traumatic event represent a critical window. What happens to a victim before an ambulance arrives often dictates whether they live or die. Proper, immediate intervention during these initial moments not only decides survival but also drastically minimizes the risk of long-term complications and permanent disability.
The blueprint for AIDFIRST was born out of these exact stakes on a grueling day late in 2024. Inside the chaotic Emergency Department of Cho Ray Hospital, a facility where medical shifts are defined by a relentless race against the clock, doctor Nguyen Dang Thanh Danh was catching a rare and quiet moment of rest. He was interrupted by Doan Dao Minh Duc, who had arrived at the hospital without a glossy pitch deck or a detailed business proposal. Instead, the teenager looked at the physician and asked a single, blunt question: "How many cases would have avoided critical conditions if they had just received proper first aid at the scene?"
The question struck a chord with doctor Danh, who spent his days witnessing the tragic consequences of bystander inaction. Minh Duc quickly laid out his vision. He wanted to systematically equip students and young people with standardized first aid skills, transforming a generation from passive onlookers into confident first responders. The teenager's final pitch to the doctor was simple: "I know you are busy saving lives here at the hospital. But if you help me train the community, we can save more people before they ever have to reach your emergency room."
Doctor Danh was intrigued, but he remained deeply skeptical. In the high-stakes world of emergency medicine, where a single mistake can cost a life, pure enthusiasm is a liability. To test the teenager's actual competence, the doctor subjected Minh Duc to a spontaneous, grueling oral examination on the spot. He threw complex, hypothetical scenarios at the student, demanding precise protocols for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), airway obstruction by foreign objects, and severe trauma management.
To the doctor's surprise, Minh Duc did not stumble. The teenager demonstrated a precise grasp of the core principles of emergency care and, crucially, understood the strict boundary separating immediate on-site stabilization from advanced medical intervention. Impressed by the boy's rigorous preparation and receptive attitude, doctor Danh committed to the project on the spot. He promised that no matter how packed his hospital shift schedule became, he would find time to build this movement. The doctor realized that if every student could perform high-quality chest compressions and every citizen could clear a choking airway, they would effectively build a silent, unbreakable safety net across society.
The motivation driving Minh Duc is rooted in staggering global and domestic data. Globally, more than 900,000 children and adolescents lose their lives each year, with 90 percent of those fatalities resulting from unintentional, preventable injuries. Domestically, the crisis is equally acute, with Vietnam averaging more than 370,000 childhood accidents annually. Minh Duc realized that these risks spared no one, yet the vast majority of his peers lacked even the most rudimentary skills to respond to an emergency. He decided he could no longer sit by and watch the numbers climb.
Launched formally in December 2024, AIDFIRST began its mission to teach the youth self-protection and civic duty. In the early phases, Minh Duc spent his free time walking into the emergency wards of major medical centers, including Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital, Cho Ray Hospital, Thong Nhat Hospital, and the Ho Chi Minh City 115 Emergency Center. He personally invited frontline doctors to join his cause. Moved by their own daily experiences with preventable tragedies, many physicians not only signed up but recruited their medical colleagues to join the roster.
Now, after more than a year of intensive operations, the grassroots initiative has scaled into a major educational force. AIDFIRST has established a footprint in over 70 schools nationwide, delivering hands-on training to nearly 50,000 individuals, most of whom are young students.
The project rejects passive lecturing, opting instead for an interactive, practical methodology. Instructors do not just show students how to perform a physical maneuver; they explain the anatomical science behind why it works, ensuring participants understand the core mechanics of every action.
The impact of this approach is already cultivating a self-sustaining cycle of civic engagement. 12th-grade student Nguyen Ngoc Ty of class 12A3 at Long Hai - Phuoc Tinh High School recalled that the training completely shifted his perspective on public safety. After mastering the practical maneuvers in the workshop, Ty immediately voiced his desire to transition from a student to an active project volunteer, eager to carry the life-saving knowledge to communities that have not yet been reached.
