Vietnamese toddler Phung Thien Nhan, not yet two years old, is a born survivor whose horrific story and cheeky smile have touched hearts and drawn offers of support from across the nation.
Many people here remember reading about Nhan in newspapers back in 2006 after he was abandoned after birth by his teenage mother in a remote and poor central mountain area.
Dumped outside the family shack and left to die, hidden under papaya leaves and bamboo, the newborn was mauled by a wild animal, most likely a dog, which chewed off his right leg and badly savaged his groin.
Villagers found the boy, his pale and bloodied body crawling with ants. By the time he was taken by motorcycle to the nearest hospital, 72 hours had passed and yet, miraculously, the child survived.
Hospital staff amputated his leg and stabilized his condition, and visiting Buddhist monks named him Thien Nhan or “good person.”
Two months later authorities inexplicably sent him back to his family, where he was in the care of his grandparents.
The case disappeared from the news. Many people presumed the boy had died.
But Tran Mai Anh, a Hanoi journalist, couldn’t stop thinking about Nhan, tormented at night by visions of what had become of him.
Her worst fears would turn out to be true. When, after months of research, she tracked him down in December in his family hut, he was badly neglected, dirty, anemic and suffering diarrhea.
She took him to a medical center and, a month ago, adopted him, together with her husband and fellow journalist Phung Quang Nghinh.
They took him back to Hanoi, where Nhan was treated for free at the French-Vietnamese hospital.
VietCot, a German-funded charity, hand-crafted a prosthetic leg, — the first of many that he will need as he grows.
His adoptive parents have contacted international hospitals about the plastic surgery and hormone therapy Nhan will need to lead a normal life.
News quickly spread in the media and on Internet forums. Hundreds e-mailed and visited the family house in Hanoi’s Old Quarter, bringing toys, baby clothes and their own children to play with Nhan.
“Everyone is offering to help. I didn’t know there are so many good people. One old woman from the countryside came and insisted on giving us the little money she could spare. She wanted to see Nhan before her eye operation, in case something happened and she couldn’t see him afterwards,” Mai Anh said.
Friends helped set up a blog at www.help-thien-nhan.blogspot.com and an account for donations to help cover the child’s surgery and therapy bills, expected to run into the tens of thousands of dollars.
At first Nhan hid in corners, cried and only slept sitting up.
“He ate bananas and cold rice, that’s all he knew,” Mai Anh said. “He didn’t know what toys were, they were meaningless to him. We put him in front of the TV, but it seemed like the television set was invisible to him.”
After a month with his new family, Nhan was cheerfully greeting visitors this week, playing with toys, and swaying on his new leg to the tune of his new big brother Minh, 8, playing the piano.
“His emotions still change, but he’s so much happier,” Mai Anh said. “Now he eats everything. He’s getting fat!”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS