A Vietnamese-born boy with a tumor covering half of his face "molts" after being adopted by American parents

The story of a boy of Vietnamese origin who changed his life after being adopted has touched many people. Through the process of "reincarnation", the boy this year has become a strong and healthy guy.

Unlucky like other children, boy Nguyen Le Hung was born with a giant tumor covering half of his face. The thought that Hung's life would be a series of tragedies, but hope was ignited when the Ettore family appeared and decided to save the boy's life.

About the fateful meeting, American Mrs. Hope Ettore said: "Sixteen years ago, John and I woke up on our first day in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We've been through it. an exhausting journey that took almost 3 days to get there, due to a 24-hour transit in Tokyo.

I am pregnant and have sent Elliott (6 years old) Bella (4 years old) and Lily (13 years old) at home with Grandma. We tried to find a cafe to enjoy our morning coffee. Then Thuy - a guide - took us to see 13-month-old Nguyen Le Hung for the first time. Later, we changed the boy's name to Samuel Ian Ettore.

When we arrived at the orphanage, we were really shocked. From room to room, the babies lay in their cribs against the wall as if looking at us, begging for attention. I couldn't hold back the tears. They led us to Samuel's room. The boy was there, to be honest, in a bad state. In addition to the giant tumor covering half of his face, he had just been discharged from the hospital after being treated for chickenpox, which had turned into pneumonia and a staph infection.

The orphanage's doctor was also there. She seemed a little embarrassed to let us see Samuel in such a bad state. She explains that sometimes they get the vaccine to give to the kids, sometimes they don't. They didn't have a vaccine recently and when chickenpox, then measles, swept through the orphanage, 3 children died, several more children were hospitalized, including our Samuel." .

At that time, she was an epidemiologist working in Southeast Asia. She often comes into contact with sick, abandoned children in orphanages. With great empathy, Hope wanted to give "hope" to little children.

Hung is not exactly an orphan. The boy's parents are still alive, but are unable to raise the two premature twins, and have too many health problems. From Binh Phuoc, many times they went to the Go Vap Orphanage, Ho Chi Minh City to ask for Hung to come back to help the poor.

But the staff of the orphanage understood, without medical intervention, Hung would hardly survive. They persuaded Hung's parents to leave the child, maybe some foreigner would adopt him and take care of him.

Little Hung has hemangioma and many other health problems, is older than age but can't walk, small person. But Hope and John still wanted to welcome the boy into their family, from the very first smile.

Returning to the Ettore family, Hung was renamed by his adoptive parents to Samuel Ian Ettore, intimately named Sam. The boy grew up in a large family, with 3 older siblings, the youngest Lilah (born 2 weeks after Sam came to the US) and another adopted son of the same age, from Ethiopia. The Ettore family really struggled when they had to take care of many children of different ages, especially Sam.

Adoptive parents take care of Sam to overcome the infection, integrate into his new life and have good resistance to surgery to remove the tumor. The potentially high-risk blood tumor, again occupied half of the boy's face, so many doctors in large and small hospitals refused. Finally, there was a surgeon who accepted the treatment. Sam had to undergo 5 facial surgeries and 2 eye surgeries to get a relatively normal appearance and regain his vision.

But that's not all. Having just breathed a sigh of relief because their adopted son got rid of the tumor, the Ettore family had to "fight" to help Sam overcome his speech delay, retardation, and poor development chart. They patiently accompany their children to physical therapy classes, exercise exercises, speech therapy, and behavioral therapies...

Not only Hope or John, the other siblings in the family also patiently support Sam, with a love and connection that is difficult to explain. And they also tasted the sweet fruit as Sam grew, alert, healthy, and fading away from the traces of his old ailments.

Sam has turned 18 proudly, has graduated from high school and is about to go to college. The first day Sam came to the US, doctors were concerned that he would hardly develop normally, not daring to talk about education.

Currently, Sam and youngest daughter Lilah of the Ettore family have received scholarships at RHS with a total value of more than $5,000. In addition, Sam received the RHS Bulldog Pride Award and will have his name engraved on an honor board at the school.

It is impossible to tell all the hardships and incalculable love that Hope has for her adopted son of Vietnamese origin in the journey of "reincarnation" Sam. She raised him into a warm boy, with the sparkling light of tolerance.

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