Injury Date: 1991
Injuries: blind right eye, fragments in left eye; lost right hand; massive scarring from burns
District: Vinh Linh
Intake Date: VMP, June 2001
CPI Assistance: QLI, contribution to purchase of cow; corrective laser surgery, glasses; prosthetic hand
Occupation: husbandry

Ten years ago, at age 9, Nghia was helping to clean up at the schoolyard, cutting grass, when there was an explosion. He lost his right eye and hand, and suffered massive burns on 50% of his upper body and left arm. Following up on the VMP assessment, his family was selected for a Quality of Life Improvement grant and a home visit was made to assess his needs.

During this visit, in late July, Nghia’s family informed CPI that his vision was deteriorating rapidly and that they feared if something could not be done soon, he would be completely blind. Halfway through the previous school year he had been forced to cease attendance owing to his condition. In addition to the state of his vision, Nghia is unable to raise his left arm, the one with a hand, because of the contraction of scar tissue over the years. For this reason, the family thought a cow would be a good option for QLI support. An agreement was reached to contribute to the family’s purchase of a cow, so that he might have some livelihood, but the family wondered if it would do any good: a blind boy cannot tend his cow.

For many years now quiet and withdrawn, Nghia nevertheless agreed to go to Da Nang with his father, to both the Orthopedic Center and to the Da Nang Eye Hospital. His case became our first cooperation with the region’s best ophthalmologic resource, and has since joined the group of CPI’s many dedicated, medical counterparts.

Initially disappointed that the painful fragment in his eye could not be removed successfully, Nghia rebounded quickly and instead received both laser surgery and glasses to correct his vision. He also received a prosthetic hand from the Center. After his short and fruitful stay, he again attends school in hopes of adding to the many commendations that grace the walls around the altar in his family home. The prosthetic hand helps him feel more like the other children, and his pleasing smile comes more easily these days.

The scars still require revision to give him a better range of motion with his left arm, and arrangements are being made for this surgery in 2002 when the VMP returns to Viet Nam. He knows the surgeries will go on for years as he grows, and that each will require his best efforts, but when asked what he wants for himself, he said, “I want to be able to work, to help my family. They have done so much for me.”