An indication of his vivacious persona, Vu Tien Kinh celebrates his birthday every day ““ but his practice is not one of vanity.
Vu, who was adopted as an infant after the Vietnam War ended, said he doesn’t know when he was born.
A Connecticut music teacher, Vu said he has three annual parties: one on April 30 ““ the Fall of Saigon ““ one on November 19 ““ the date listed on his 1974 baby bracelet ““ and one on April 12 ““ the day he was admitted to UCLA’s medical center 35 years ago for treatment upon his arrival to the States.
His April 12, 1975, admittance to the UCLA Medical Center sanctioned his visit to the hospital last week on Wednesday, more than three decades after UCLA medical professionals restored his health.
Vu returned to UCLA to thank Dr. Barry Halpern, the then-intern resident whose medical expertise had helped rescue Vu as a malnourished infant.
In a small presentation to pediatric residents at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center, Vu recounted his unique arrival to America, interspersing his life story with infectious laughter and humility.
Today, Vu embarks on a journey to make an invaluable connection to his cultural roots: one that will inevitably land him back in Vietnam, he said.
While in the process of legally changing his adopted name of Joseph Palmeter back to his original Vietnamese name, Vu said he found his UCLA medical records.
Vu’s unique story heralds the plight of 1975 war-torn Vietnam, as he was airlifted to the United States barely weeks before the Fall of Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City.
Having been told he was left in a basket at the steps of the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, Vu said, he spent his first few months as an infant at An Lac ““ translated as Happy Place ““ an orphanage where Madame Vu Thi Ngai and an American woman named Betty Tisdale cared for abandoned babies and homeless children.
As the South Vietnamese capital was overrun by complete panic over the imminent occupation of the North Vietnamese, Tisdale arranged for the children to evacuate.
One of many babies secured in individual cardboard boxes on Air Force planes, Vu was flown to Orange County. Two hundred and nineteen children were ultimately flown out of An Lac, and the most ill were taken to UCLA for immediate medical treatment, Vu said.
Arriving to the States severely malnourished, Vu was victim to dehydration, diarrhea and skin and eye infections, according to the interim report dictated by Dr. Halpern.
In a memo to a pediatrician two months later, Dr. Halpern wrote of the infant’s improving health, noting, “He is an extremely interesting patient and we here at UCLA would be very interested to hear how he develops and progresses over the next months.”
After his discharge from UCLA, Vu was adopted by a Lutheran couple in central Pennsylvania.
Vu joked about his initial reaction when he saw the records, saying, “The minute I read that, I thought, “˜I’ve missed a deadline already!'”
Halpern jested in response to his former patient’s considerably late health updates, emphasizing that it’s been “quite a few months later.”
Soon after locating his UCLA medical records, Vu said, he quickly located Dr. Halpern through a Google search and wrote him a letter of gratitude in early January of this year.
Dr. Halpern returned Vu’s letter with a personal phone call weeks later, though Vu was quick to assume the unrecognizable man’s voice was that of a telemarketer, Vu said.
“It was Barry Halpern. I was silenced immediately. Instantly, I said, “˜Thank you so much for saving my life,'” Vu said, momentarily overcome with tears as he told his story to the pediatric residents.
“And I think that’s why you’re sitting here today, because you want to save lives,” he addressed to the residents.
“There is not a day that goes by when I do not wonder what life would be like if I did not come to the United States,” Vu said, echoing his sentiments to celebrate life every day.
Vu will enter the doctoral program in music education and research at the University of Minnesota this September.
For Dr. Halpern, Vu is the first patient from his early days as a physician to contact him, Dr. Halpern said.
Dr. Halpern, now the medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit at the Northridge Hospital Medical Center, described his reunion with Vu as a rare, eye-opening occasion he hoped would give the pediatrics staff another perspective to their profession, he added.
“I think when you’re in training, you’re so focused on the here and now and you don’t know much of what happens afterwards,” he said.
“In intensive care, it’s like you wipe your heart clean and make way for another patient,” he added.
Dr. Jessica Lloyd, a pediatric chief resident at the Mattel Children’s Hospital, said Vu’s story was an inspiring account that serves to remind her of why she chose her profession.
“Sometimes when we work 80-hour work weeks, we can lose sight of why we’re in this field,” she added.
“As a physician, you usually don’t see the outcome of your work and to hear stories like this makes us appreciate the work that we do,” Dr. Lloyd smiled.