U.S. Doctor Returns Amputated Arm from Vietnam War to NVA Soldier

Dr. Sam Axelrad, right, hands over arm bones belonging to former North Vietnamese soldier Nguyen Quang Hung, left, at Hung’s house in the town of An Khe, Gia Lai province, Vietnam on Monday July 1, 2013. 

In October 1966 Axelrad amputated Hung’s arm after the soldier was shot in the arm in an ambush by American troops in the coastal province of Binh Dinh in the former South Vietnam. 

After decades of silence, the two veterans resumed contact after a Vietnamese journalist wrote an article in a newspaper last year about Axelrad’s search for Hung, prompting Hung’s brother in law to contact the newspaper’s editors. 

AP Photo/Thanh Nien Newspaper, Kha Hoa