Park Sam-koo Kumho Asiana chairman

By Kim Tong-hyung

Corporate leaders enjoy talking about how they care about their employees. But Kumho Asiana Group Chairman Park Sam-koo seems intent on showing that actions speak louder than words.

According to group officials, Park has been personally monitoring the medical treatment of Truong Vinh Thuan, a 26-year-old Vietnamese employee of Kumho Tire, who was seriously injured while working at the company’s factory in the country’s Binh Duong Province.

Truong arrived at Incheon International Airport early Sunday and was moved to the Yonsei University Severance Hospital in Seoul where he is now preparing to get surgery; nearly a month after his upper body was sucked into a machine at the factory where he worked.

As local doctors were unable to perform the necessary surgeries and other required medical attention to fix Truong’s injured neck, ribs and left arm, leaving him at risk of being paralyzed from the waist down, Park arranged for Truong to be treated in Seoul. Park also being the head of the Yonsei University alumni association made things easier, Kumho Asiana officials said.

Kumho Asiana will fully finance the medical treatment for Truong, not to mention the plane tickets. However, Truong’s chances for a full recovery are far from certain, company officials said. He has a wife and three-year-old daughter.

``At first, the company thought that he had suffered only a broken arm and fractured ribs. However, the medial services in Vietnam aren’t as quick as they are in Seoul and he was only able to receive a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) after a week. The tests showed he had a ruptured disc in the neck and was in danger of being paralyzed from the waist down if his condition wasn’t treated immediately and properly,’’ Kim Min-kyu, a Kumho Asiana official.

``Park was closely involved from the beginning of Truong’s injury and after the MRI results, he ordered Kumho Tire and other group affiliates to do whatever they could to bring him to a Korean hospital. It’s rare for a Korean company to bring a foreign employee to Seoul and assist in his medical recovery.’’

Under Park’s watch, Kumho Asiana has worked to maintain a good relationship with Vietnamese officials and companies, identifying the company as a growth market and crucial manufacturing base.

Park has met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to discuss business opportunities.