Vietnamese Children to Be Treated For War Wounds in Boston Hospital

Two war-injured Vietnamese children arrived in Boston on Wednesday to undergo surgery arranged by the Committee on Responsibility (COR) whose sponsors include 12 Harvard Faculty members.

The two boys, Trang Cuong Viet, 10, and Nguyen Phat Luom, 13, were injured by shrapnel and bombs in the South Vietnamese provinces. They were flown to Hanscom Field in Bedford by the United States Air Force. They will undergo reconstructive plastic surgery at the Beth Israel Hospital in Brookline where doctors have offered their services without charge.

Since plastic surgery is usually executed in several stages spanning up to four months, the children will convalesce between operations at a private home in Brookline, said Dr. Frank Ervin, assistand professor of Psychiatry and COR spokesman.

The children cannot be treated in Vietnam, COR National Chairman Dr. Herbert Needleman said, because of the lack of specialists, hospital beds, antibiotics, and nursing care. There is one doctor per 100,000 civilians in rural areas, with two or three children in each hospital bed, he said.

Non-Political

The Committee is non-political, Ervin said, comprised largely of physicians concerned over civilian injuries in the Vietnam war. Formed in January, 1967, it is similar to Terre des Hommes, a Swiss group which has been bringing children to Europe for treatment for several years.

COR negotiated directly with the South Vietnamese government to arrange the children's transfers. Dr. Neddleman said that they are currently arranging a "procedural document to short cut the considerable red tape involved" with the Saigon Ministries of Health.

COR has no government affiliation. Needleman said that the U.S. budgets only $34 million per year for civilian medical aid in Vietnam, less than half the amount spent per day on military aid.

This claim was substantiated by Senator Edward M. Kennedy '54 in a speech at Harvard Medical School on October 25. As Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Refugees, Kennedy has been carrying on investigations of civilian casualties, at which Dr. Ervin testified. Kennedy called his committee's attempts to expand government aid to injured civilians "frustrating and painful."

Dr. Needleman said that fifty children would be brought here this year, and "as many more as we can afford" in the succeeding years.

"There are thousands of children who need help, but if the war continues, nothing will effectively ameliorate the civilian disaster," Dr. Needleman said.