Nguyen Viet’s funeral was held yesterday at 5 p.m. in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Viet will be cremated today. 

“This is a pity, not only for [Viet’s brother] Duc and his family, but also for everybody in Hoa Binh Village” said chief of Hoa Binh Village Dr. Nguyen Thi Phuong Tan.

A famous twin

Born in 1981 in the remote rural Sa Thay district of province Kon Tum, Nguyen Viet and Nguyen Duc were born as ischiopagus tripus conjoined twins, attached at the pelvis.

They grew up from care and love of Hoa Binh Village belonging to HCMC-based Tu Du Hospital. The two boys originally shared a leg, an abnormal lower limb, a bladder, a sex organ and an anus.

Their condition has been attributed to their parents’ exposure to Agent Orange, a herbicide sprayed on the Vietnamese countryside and its civilian inhabitants during the Vietnam War.

Viet and Duc as conjoined twins in 1981

On May 1986, Viet began to suffer from severe encephalitis, which posed a threat to both young boys. To avoid such complications spreading to Duc, doctors decided to separate the boys in 1988 in hope of saving both.

The fifteen-hour surgery was under-taken successfully by 70 professors and Vietnamese doctors. Thu surgery was led by Dr. Tran Dong A.

Both children’s lives were saved, but Viet went into a vegetative state. Last Thursday was also nineteenth anniversary of the surgery.

Duc, who received the leg and anus he once shared with his brother, works as a technician in Hoa Binh Village and tutors disabled children. He is able to walk with crutches and was married last December.

“I feel a sense of loss for my brother, who gave me most of his organs for my survival,” said Duc mourning his brother’s death.

The late man’s brother - Nguyen Duc, is luckier than his brother as not to be always bound on the bed. Duc is now working for Tu Du Hospital as a computer technician.

Last year, he got married with Thanh Tuyen in HCMC and their wedding party was televised across the world as an evidence for the human progress in medical knowledge.