Injury Date: April, 1980
Injuries: loss off both legs
Province: Quang Tri
Intake Date: July, 2002
CPI Assistance: working prosthetics
Occupation: rice farmer

Do Thien Dang was 20 years old and had gone alone to cut straw in the rice fields when he stepped on a landmine along the way and lost both legs: the year was 1980, the month April, and the place Trieu Phong District of Quang Tri Province. After 03 months at Hue Central Hospital, he was released and returned to the family farm to continue working.

Today Dang is 43 years-old, has married and is the father of 03 children. He and his wife are still farming. When he arrived at the second Group Medical Assessment at Quang Tri General Hospital this past December, his 'mobility devices' were a pair of typical squatting stools that he used to keep himself up off the ground by moving them under the stumps of his legs as he went. He could navigate stairs and get himself onto a bicycle with minimal assistance. Surgeons referred him to Da Nang Orthopedic Center for stump revisions and the first stage of prosthesis with CPI support.

After 4 months at the Center, recuperating and then rehabilitating, Dang was released: within the week he was knocking on the CPI office door, sporting his new legs and a small sack of sweet-potatoes from his garden. The prosthetics are static, and truncated to where the knee joint would be so that he can gain confidence in their use, and develop the muscle mass in hislower trunk and legs to move up to fully-articulating prostheses in a year or so. When he says he's ready, we'll be there to support him.