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basically the reasons the doctor keep the arm was "I kept this guy's arm as a relic to tell myself I'm a good person!" like idk what to say

  • Chapo_Trap_Horse [none/use name]
    1·
    4 years ago

    Yeah but the war trophy idea is on another fucking level entirely, like the guy bent down and picked up a recently blown-off arm from the battlefield and stuffed it into his backpack next to his smokes and ripped out porn mag pages and somehow kept a rotting human arm around through everything and got it home.

    • CarlTheRedditor [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Nguyen Quang Hung fought during the Vietnam war and had his arm amputated by US army doctor Sam Axelrad in 1966 after his arm caught gangrene.

      Dr Axelrad kept the bones of the arm as a reminder of the good deed he had performed by treating an enemy soldier.

      . . .

      "When I amputated his arm [in 1966], our medics took the arm, took the flesh off it, put it back together perfectly with wires, and then they gave it to me," he said.

      "When I left the country six months later, I didn't want to throw it away, I put it in my trunk and brought it home, and all these years it has been in my house," he added.

      But, that said, Nguyen agrees with you:

      "I can't believe that an American doctor took my infected arm, got rid of the flesh, dried it, took it home and kept it for more than 40 years," he said.