A dream comes true

Laotian visitor now walks on new prosthetic leg

Published Sunday, April 22, 2007

By Staff

Boua Vang Chang of Laos was awake most of the night of Nov. 14, 1971, in excruciating pain.

He had been on guard earlier in the day after he and three other men searched his town for the enemy.

Around noon the men divided into pairs and made a trek around a mountain. Chang took the lead to move first, taking each step as carefully as he could.

Suddenly something jolted. A loud explosion, a rush of pain and a cloud of smoke surrounded him.

Chang turned to his partner and said, “Why did you shoot me?”

His partner replied that he had not shot him.

As Chang looked down, he saw his mangled left foot was enveloped by the exploded metal shards of a grenade that had been used as a landmine.

On April 19, 2007, once again, Chang was awake all night. This time it was not because of pain, but rather because of an extreme joy and excitement. Around noon the next day, he would receive a prosthetic leg from Baker Orthotics and Prosthetics in Fort Worth.

For the first time in 35 years, Chang would be able to walk on his own two feet.

Following the landmine explosion of 1971, Chang was rushed to a local Laotian hospital. Half of his foot was removed and bandaged, and Chang was sent home to heal.

“I was about 14 or 15 at the time and I remember when he came home, his leg was very bad,” Chang’s daughter, Soua Moua of Decatur said. “After a couple of months, it had a big swelling. It was blue and it smelled very, very bad. There were flies and they had laid eggs. It was very, very bad.”

His family took him back to the hospital where doctors in the small village told him they did not have the means to care for him.

They referred him to bigger hospital in a bigger city where an American doctor worked.

Chang was told by the American doctor that his leg would have to be amputated, about six inches above the knee.

Afterward, Chang carved a wooden leg for himself so he could at least walk around and care for his four acres, which he farms to feed his large family.

He came to the United States to visit family in Decatur in February with the goal of returning to Laos with a prosthetic leg.

After years of waiting, his dream came true on April 20.

Following a visit to Baker Orthotics and Prosthetics in Fort Worth, Chang returned to Decatur with a prosthesis in place of the wooden leg. A size 10 1/2 shoe rested on its foot.

“He’s excited because now he can go buy shoes and wear both of them – he doesn’t have to throw one away,” Chang’s grandson, Pierre Moua said.

Gordon Stevens, a prosthetist at the company, said Chang will have to adapt to the new leg which was donated to him by the company. It has a bendable knee which is currently locked so Chang can more readily adapt to the feel of the prosthesis.

The biggest change for Chang is that he feels pressure on a small portion of bone remaining in the amputated leg that he had not felt before. Rehabilitation that will be donated by Wise Regional Health System in Decatur will help him make the adjustment.

Chang though, does not mind the odd feeling.

A huge smile and a glint of tears in his eyes said it all as he jokingly added that he “might be able to jump on his horse now and go for a ride.”