“Some people need only a few seconds to change their lives forever. For me, that moment came at noon on April 30, 2015, when I was thrust into a journey of survival that would be anything but easy,” said Tran Xuan My, now 30, from Dai Phuc in Thai Nguyen, recalling the ordeal that brought him to the brink of death repeatedly.

After finishing high school, My chose to work rather than continue his studies, hoping to ease the burden on his parents. He imagined a simple life. That dream ended during the Reunification Day holiday in 2015.

While on his way to a bus station to pick up his sister returning home from Hanoi, My was involved in a serious traffic accident. The impact threw him into a roadside drainage ditch, leaving him unconscious. His motorbike was nearly destroyed.

When his parents arrived at the hospital, they found their son lying motionless on a stretcher in the corridor, his clothes soaked with blood and dirty water. No one knew what the future held for the 19-year-old.

At Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi, doctors performed Emergency Decompressive Craniectomy to save his life. The following morning, My’s mother was handed a small container packed with ice. Inside was a piece of her son’s skull that surgeons had removed to relieve pressure on his brain.

Holding the container in her arms, she had no idea whether her son would ever wake up again.

Six days later, My opened his eyes. But his fight for survival was only beginning.

When he regained consciousness, he discovered that his left arm and both legs barely responded to his commands. A large section of the right side of his head had collapsed inward, leaving a significant skull defect. For the first time, he truly understood the fear of standing between life and permanent disability.

By the time he was discharged, he was confined to a wheelchair. For months afterward, his parents took turns helping him relearn how to walk. Every painful step brought both suffering and renewed hope.

The struggle continues

The years that followed were filled with hospital wards, operating rooms and one complication after another. New openings repeatedly appeared in his skull, leading to further surgeries. At one point, much of his skull was effectively gone.

Meanwhile, his family entered one of the most difficult periods of their lives. His father was diagnosed with neurocysticercosis and required hospitalization. The burden fell largely on his mother and sister.

The mother borrowed money from everywhere, even resorting to high-interest loans to secure funds to save her husband and son. During their days at the hospital, she routinely purchased only a single portion of rice; the son ate the main portion, while the mother quietly consumed the remainder. The weekend charity congee became the emotional fuel helping the mother and son hold on through months that seemed deadlocked.

There were intervals when his health appeared to improve, enabling My to ride a bicycle around. However, complications struck again. After that, Mi suffered an intra-abdominal infection, running a high fever for 42 consecutive days. The successive hospital transfers between Thai Nguyen and Hanoi felt like an endless race against death.

Then, in 2022, My's father passed away. The grief of losing his father lingered, yet My's war against illness had to push forward.

In 2023 and 2024, he stepped into the operating theater multiple times for cranioplasty. 3D modeling technology, custom titanium plates tailored from abroad, and multi-departmental consultations. Everything was mobilized in the hope of restoring a whole skull for the young man. Yet, his body repeatedly rejected the implants.

"There were moments I thought I could no longer survive," Mi recalled. 

Over 10 years since the day the accident transpired, he still must take anti-epileptic medication every single day. Seizures manifest like a reminder of a war that has never concluded. Half of his body remains weak, and his health is no longer what it once was, yet he is still alive after dozens of surgeries on the brink of death.

The love of his family has transformed into the most special "skull" of all, sheltering him throughout years.

Ha Nguyen