Ex-Conjoined Vietnamese Man Awarded With Foreign Minister’s Commendation

Nguyen Duc is a Vietnamese who was born as a conjoined twin. His condition was likely due to the aftermath caused by Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant Agent Orange used by the U.S. military in the Vietnam War. The Japanese Foreign Ministry has recently awarded him for promoting exchanges between Japan and Vietnam.

Duc has been separated from his conjoined twin brother through an operation aided by Japanese medical professionals in 1988, when they were 7-years-old. Since then, he’s been to Japan numerous times and delivered talks about the damage caused by the defoliant to the environment, the health of the people living there, and the importance of peace.

On Thursday, the 40-year-old was a part of a ceremony held on the Japanese consulate‘s premises in Ho Chi Minh City. He was presented with the Foreign Minister’s Commendation.

Nguyen Duc, 32, poses for a portrait outside his office in the Agent Orange children’s ward at Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Duc and his brother Viet were born as conjoined twins, a result of their mother’s exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. They were surgically separated in 1988, seven years after their birth, and his non-cognitive brother died in 2007 after years of health problems. Duc has since married, and now has 4-year-old twins of his own. They are both normal, he says. May 1, 2013.

“I want to continue to make efforts to remain as an intermediary to Japan and Vietnam,” Duc said during the ceremony.

He is a Ho Chi Minh City resident and is employed at a local hospital. His brother Viet passed away in 2007 at the age of 26 from pneumonia and abdominal bleeding.

Source: Kyodo

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