They diagnosed him with kidney failure caused by dehydration and rhabdomyolysis, a serious breakdown of muscle tissue that follows severe heatstroke. Hours of fluids and aggressive cooling pulled him back from the edge. In the bed beside him, a 42-year-old man was being treated for heatstroke after hours outdoors.
Dang Tuan Dung, deputy head of Emergency Room 1 at the A9 Center, said the facility normally handles 250-300 cases a day. Over the past three days, it has recorded an additional 60-70 cases daily linked directly to the heat.
The toll is not only physical. On May 25, the Mental Health Institute at Bach Mai Hospital examined and admitted six patients suffering psychotic episodes. Associate Professor Duong Minh Tam, who heads the institute's Stress-Related Disorders Treatment Department, said extreme heat is a direct trigger for psychiatric flare-ups, sending patients previously stable on outpatient care into insomnia, agitation, mood disorders and relapse.
Dr. Dang Tuan Dung examines a patient at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi on the morning of May 26, 2026. Photo by VnExpress/Le Nga
In Phu Tho Province, north of Hanoi, the provincial general hospital has admitted at least two farmers in critical condition with heatstroke and coma after working continuously in the fields. Medical facilities in Thanh Hoa have recorded sharp increases in cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal and drowning cases, particularly among children and the elderly.
