Giants in History: Henriette Bui Quang Chieu

Vietnam’s first female medical doctor, Henriette Bui Quang Chieu (8 September 1906 – 27 April 2012), was inspired to follow in her brother’s footsteps and become a doctor after losing her mother to tuberculosis. After returning to Vietnam from France where she was the first Vietnamese woman to receive a medical degree, Bui was appointed head of the Department of Midwifery at Cho Lon Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. A pioneer in gynaecology, Bui applied acupuncture techniques that she had learned in Japan to obstetrics. She also cared for soldiers injured during the war. When Vietnam was a French colony, Vietnamese doctors and nurses were not seen as equal to their French counterparts. Wanting Vietnamese healthcare professionals to be treated equally, Bui lobbied for the rights of  Vietnamese doctors and patients.