War Stories

US doctor returns arm bones to former North VN soldier Tuoitrenews An American doctor has arrived in Vietnam to return the bones of an arm he amputated in 1966 to its owner, 73-year-old Nguyen Quang Hung, a former North Vietnamese soldier in the Vietnam War. Dr. Sam Axelrad, a 74-year-old urologist in the U.S. state of Texas, met Hung on July 1 at his home in An Khe Town, in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai, 46 years after the bones were amputated. The meeting was so touching that everyone present could not hold back their tears. The doctor said he kept the bones as keepsake in a closet at his home in Houston for a long time, and when he finally pulled them out two years ago, he thought he should return them to their true owner. In October 1966 Axelrad amputated Hung's arm after the soldier was shot in an ambush by American troops in the coastal province of Binh Dinh, in the former South Vietnam. Hung said he was shot about 75 kilometers from An Khe, the town where he now lives. He was later evacuated by a US helicopter to a military hospital in Phu Cat, in the same province, for treatment. After examining the forearm, which was infected, Axelrad, then a 27-year-old military doctor, decided to amputate the arm above the elbow to keep the infection from killing his patient. After the surgery, Hung and the doctor became friends. In 1967, Axelrad returned to the U.S., bringing the bones along with him, thinking that he would return them to Hung some day. Recently, through a newspaper article, Axelrad learned that Hung was alive and living in An Khe, so he managed to contact the former soldier about returning the bones to him.  “He is getting very old but I recognized him at once as soon as I met him again. He also recognized me easily. The happiest thing is that the bones he has returned are mine exactly,” Hung said after meeting his benefactor again. Hung said he would place the bones in a formal place in his house and would ask his children to bury them with him when he passes away. "I'm very glad to see him again and have that part of my body back after nearly half a century," the AP quoted Hung as saying by telephone on Monday after meeting Axelrad. "I'm proud to have shed my blood for my country's reunification, and I consider myself very lucky compared with many of my comrades who were killed or remain unaccounted for," Hung said.