Vietnamese war vet has slug taken from heart

[Hecatonchiros]

I was thinking of posting this in General Discussion, but decided to put it here instead.


By Vu Tien Hong - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Apr 17, 2007 11:35:15 EDT
HANOI, Vietnam — A Vietnamese soldier who was shot by U.S. troops in 1968 and has lived with a bullet lodged in his heart for nearly four decades underwent surgery and the slug was successfully removed, doctors said Monday.
Le Dinh Hung, 60, underwent surgery on Friday and is recovering quickly, said Dr. Nguyen Sinh Hien, who spent three hours operating on Hung at Hanoi Heart Hospital.
“It is the strangest case that I have ever seen,” Hien said. “Normally a person with a bullet in his heart would die immediately if they didn’t have surgery right away.”
Hung said the surgery had eased the chest pain he had suffered since the 1968 Vietnam War battle, in Quang Tri province near the former demilitarized zone that separated North and South Vietnam.
“I was very lucky to survive,” he said from his hospital bed. “People believe in their fate and I do too.”
One year after Hung was shot, doctors tried unsuccessfully to remove the bullet, which is just over an inch long.
Hien said the bullet went through Hung’s stomach, damaged his cardiac valve and came to rest at the back of his heart.
Doctors, who replaced Hung’s damaged valve with an artificial one, said he would be hospitalized for several more days.
Hung, who is retired, worked as an administrator at a Hanoi medical school after the war. He fought with the communist North, which defeated the army of the former South Vietnam in 1975. The war claimed the lives of 3 million people, including 58,000 U.S. troops.


http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/04/ap_vietnam_bullet_070416/

Now that´s one lucky guy.

[RallyPointCebu]

lucky indeed.


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[BlitzCod]

Lucky indeed. Almost the same happened to my granfather, he got russian rifle bullet on his shoulder. It stopped few centimetres from his heart. My father got it after granfather died. After autopsy. I still have it.

[KB]

Great story. Great they were able to deal with this 40 yrs later.

My great uncle was wounded in France in 1918 during the Meuse-Argonne fighting. Took two Maxim rounds in the chest. Laid on the ground for 30 hours before someone found him and got him evacuated. Eventually recovered and lived a full life after the war.

In 1976 he went in for a physical and a dark mass showed up on his chest X-ray next to his heart. Docs thought he had cancer and went in to operate. Found a 7.92mm round 1/2 in from his heart surrounded by a bunch of fibrous tissue the size of a grapefruit. Wound up removing a big chunk of his left lung, but he lived to the ripe old age of 88.

[Lt-Col A. Tack]

One year after Hung was shot, doctors tried unsuccessfully to remove the bullet, which is just over an inch long.

For real?
Sounds like a big slug...What cartridge and what weapon?

[Con-man]

No idea what weapon and cartridge, but by all medical means this guy should've died, it would have normally killed a man even if it was a .22 I'd say.