Nguyen Thang

On the day of his 17th birthday, Thang was hit from behind by a motorbike that swerved onto the sidewalk. By the time he reached a hospital, the doctor informed Thang’s parents that he the window to save his limb had passed and that he would have to receive a below-the-knee amputation. Thang spent his birthday and the following month in the hospital.

For the next year, Thang relied on friends and family to recover from the accident. Unable to move around as he could not afford a prosthetic limb, Thang was missing school, and after a year, he became eager to return to education and pursue a profession. Driven to not allow his disability to constrain him, Thang began to seek out new options for prosthetic care, eventually becoming one of Penta’s first patients.

“I consider myself very lucky to be able to go back to school and receive a college education.”

With his new below-the-knee device, Thang has returned to school and also has found a passion for hairdressing. After regular classes every day, Thang attends hairdressing classes at a local disability center. “The leg helps me to move around easily. Now I can ride my motorbike to my hairdresser school. I can have a job and take care of myself,” Thang said, adding that he hopes to open a barbershop in the future, an option that is now possible because of his newfound mobility.