Bullet removed from heart 39 years after war

DOCTORS have removed a bullet from the heart of a Vietnamese soldier nearly four decades after he was shot by US troops during the Vietnam War, doctors said yesterday.

Le Dinh Hung, 60, underwent surgery at a Hanoi hospital on Friday and is recovering quickly, said Dr Nguyen Sinh Hien, who spent three hours operating on Hung.

“It is the strangest case that I have ever seen,” Dr Hien said. “Normally a person with a bullet in his heart would die immediately if they didn’t have surgery right away”