Nguyen Quang Hung, 74, a former Vietnamese soldier, recently recovered his right arm, a former American army doctor having preserved it for 47 years.
Hung happy to reunite with his arm after 47 years
The doctor, Sam Axelrad, who originally amputatee Hung's arm in 1966 for gangrene, returned it to Hung on July 1.
Hung, who lives in the central highlands, said that the act has brought up many wartime memories.
He is originally from Gia Thinh Commune, in the northern province of Nam Dinh, and joined the army in 1964. He was assigned to serve in Central Highlands battlefield in 1965, and was responsible for transporting wounded soldiers.
In the summer of 1966 he was assigned to lead a squad of soldiers on a reconnaissance mission when they were ambushed by an American unit. "There was only a big tree to provide us cover and I was shot in the right hand," he remembered.
Hung and the remaining soldiers finally escaped to an abandoned village where they got by on foraged vegetables and thin rice gruel. All the time his wound worsened.
Hung’s arm before being amputated
He was separated from his squad during another enemy attack, and then detained by U.S. soldiers. In the meantime he had contracted gangrene and his arm was amputated by doctor Sam Axelrad on October 27, 1966.
Under orders, Sam transported Hung to a temporary military clinic. Hung said that the thought he was being exiled to Con Dao for detainment. This was the last time the two met during the war.
After the amputation, Hung obviously had difficulties adapting to daily life. "I used my right arm for everything. After it was cut off I felt like a child who had to learn to do things over again. It took me two years to be able to write with my left hand," he said.
He was chained and guarded in the scorching sun
Hung was set free in 1969 and happened to marry the daughter of the head of a medical clinic in An Khe. A decade later he worked as a communal cadre and a pharmacist. He has seven children, but his wife died this year due to lung cancer.
Sam returned to the U.S. in 1967, taking with him both medical equipment and Hung's arm, which was kept in a trunk. In 2010, after having forgotten about it, Sam took out the bone and showed it to his family, telling them the story of where it came from.
His children urged him to return to Vietnam and give it back to the owner.
In 2012 he and his children came to Vietnam in search for Hung, who he called "Charlie". In the North of Vietnam, he met a coordinator at Thanh Nien Newspaper who published the story.
One reader in HCM City realised that Hung was the Vietnamese soldier in the story and informed Sam.
Sam, together with his two children and one grandchild, handed over the bone to Hung on July 1.
Hung was thrilled and asked Sam the reason why he had not been sent to Con Dao but to a hospital instead. Sam said, “I don’t know why but I felt real sympathy for you after we had to take off your arm. I'm also not sure about my reasons for keeping it all these years."
Hung commented, "I greatly appreciate this gesture. It takes a real humanitarian to do something like this."
Not only will he keep it for remembrance, he also hopes that it will help him gain benefits for war veterans, which have not been accessible to him due to lack of documents.