It was 1966 when Dr. Sam Axelrad amputated the arm of a young Vietnamese soldier who arrived at his medical base with gangrene in the midst of the war. His name was Nguyen Quang Hung. No one imagined that moment would bind their lives forever.
Axelrad returned to Houston, but he could not part with those bones. He kept them in his home for nearly 47 years, as a silent reminder of a decision that saved a stranger’s life amid the chaos of war.
On July 1, 2013, he traveled to An Khe, in Gia Lai province, and knocked on the door of Hung, then 73 years old, to personally give him the remains of the arm he had removed. Nearly half a century later, the doctor and his patient met face to face again.
