What do you do when one moment you’re young, fit, full of energy and zeal for life, and the next moment your arm is gone and your future is put on hold? How do you even react to that?
That exact scenario happened to a young guy and honestly it scares me quite a bit. And it’s all because of a dumb armwrestling match.
So two weeks ago I joined a local armwrestling training group that often meets at Tuổi Trẻ park right next to my house. The group consists mostly of very young guys, the average age about 20. They have been training for a while so most have decent strength and technique.
On 19/5 I was supposed to be at a practice session, but I was recovering from the bronchitis-induced fever so I couldn’t make it. The guys had their training go on as usual; they assembled an armwrestling table and practised, with several bystanders watching. Then apparently, one gung-ho dude who had never armwrestled before rolled up his sleeves, stepped in, and asked for a match. The group put him up against another newbie who had only been training for a month.
You can guess what happened next. Dude did not know about proper safety techniques, put his arm in a twisty angle, exerted too much force. And crack, there boomed a piercing sound so loud it could be heard from across the lake.

His humerus (upper arm) bone was twisted and snapped in half. He instantly went limp. Everybody’s face turned pale. He was taken to the emergency room at Thanh Nhàn immediately.
Now the funny part is that everybody was scared shitless. The armwrestlers in the group were all 17 – 21 year old kids. The perpetrator was 19. They panicked, had no idea what to do. They were afraid the family of the arm-broken guy would make them responsible for the medical bills. So they just left him in the hospital and did not visit for an entire week.
I wasn’t happy when I heard that at all. If it had been me who broke the guy’s arm, I would have made sure to be there with him every day. Such an injury was no joke.
So on Sunday 9/5 I led the other kids to follow me to visit the guy in the hospital. They were all nervous as hell, especially the kid who caused the accident. I bought a bottle of calcium milk as a gift. The “perpetrator” was a broke 19-year-old kid; he hadn’t finished high school and was attending a trade school to become a welder. He said if the family demanded he paid up the hospital bill, he’d have to wait until next month’s paycheque. I didn’t want to make it worse for the kid.
As we entered the patient’s room, it was absolutely heartbreaking seeing the young kid lying on the hospital bed. He is a good looking and fit guy having just finished his first year at Bách Khoa university. He had the surgery a couple of days ago, and now his arm was put in a cast and fixed in one place. He could neither feel nor move his fingers at all.
The mother of the guy came in. In a fit of emotional distress she pointed to each one of us and asked, in a calm but furious tone, which one of us had broken her son’s arm. I had to apologise on behalf of everyone and told her that it should not matter who did it, because accidents happen in any sport. Fortunately the injured guy didn’t snitch us out either.
The mother said that the injury was incredibly worrisome. Normally a bone fracture or bone break caused by, say traffic accidents, are not too difficult to treat. The bone just heals over time. This case though? His humerus was twisted in half, creating numerous sharp spikes that cut into nerve connections.

The surgeon was worried that with such nerve damages he might lose control of his arm altogether. And this surgeon wasn’t a regular doctor either — he was a specialist that had to be brought in from somewhere, since none of the doctors at Thanh Nhàn could perform such an operation.
The mother was in tears as she reprimanded us for “đú đởn” with this stupid game (can’t find a good translation here). The family is from Nam Định, and when she got the news she had to immediately get to Hanoi and borrowed money to pay for her son’s surgery. She had to stay 24/7 by her son in the hospital too. She was also angry that we had left him in the hospital alone for 1 week without paying a single visit. I later explained that we were a group of high school kids who did not really know any better, hoping that she would understand and forgive.
And worst of all, she was dead worried that her son might not regain control of his arm. The doctor said he would have to be in the cast for the next 6 months, and it was uncertain if his arm would be back to normal at all.
I tried to reassure the young guy that everything would be fine, and that he should make use of his bed-bound time to read or learn a useful skill. He just nodded politely. Words couldn’t help much, I know.

Afterwards the welder kid thanked me profusely for having spoken on his behalf. I could sense the tangible fear and then relief in his eyes. Poor kid, I can imagine him having to deal with some heavy guilt after that. The group later made sure that everyone new to the table would have to be taught basic safety techniques first.
As I left the hospital, I couldn’t stop thinking how random it all is. This absolutely could happen to anybody, especially guys with some strength background who don’t bother to learn the proper safety techniques. I have armwrestled plenty of times having no clue about proper elbow and shoulder alignment, and I too could have snapped my arm just as easily as that guy did. My life could have been drastically turned around with such a severe injury. And somehow it has yet to happen to me, out of pure dumb luck. It’s incredibly humbling and sober to keep in perspective how random everything is, and to appreciate whatever luck you currently have even more.
I’m sincerely hoping the kid will have a speedy recovery. I will be visiting him and bringing him a book next time.
Update 28/5: Got the news that after more than a week in the hospital, the kid is discharged. He can now rest at home and wait for his arm to slowly heal. That is definitely good news to hear. At least I know the injury is not debilitating.