Newsroom

A Vietnamese baby abandoned in a jungle at birth and mauled by wild animals may get a chance to be normal again. Thanks to some good Samaritans the baby boy, who's now a toddler, came to Houston to get the surgery he desperately needs.

"It was one of those things that after reading about it, I felt, I just had to do something," said Greig Craft.

An American philanthropist, Craft, waited anxiously at Houston's Bush Airport Saturday afternoon for a little boy dubbed Vietnam's "Miracle Baby".

The boy survived being brutally mauled by wild animals shortly after birth when his mother abandoned him in a forest in central Vietnam.

"She was frightened or whatever, but she left him in the jungle, covered him up, expecting him to die," said Craft. "We don't [what kind of animal attacked him], but his right leg was eaten as well as his genitals. He laid out there for 72 hours and lost most of his blood and miraculously was found by some monks who were passing by."

Hanoi family has adopted the boy named Phung Thien Nhan, which means "miracle" in Vietnamese. He's now three years old.

Craft has put his time and money out to help Thien Nhan come to America for crucial reconstructive surgeries to make him normal again. And there's still a chance for that since doctors recently discovered that he still had two testicles that were saved during the animal attacks since they had not descended. But the longer they were left tucked inside his body, the greater risk of permanent damage.

Thien Nhan finally arrived with his adoptive mother at 2:30pm.

"We come after a very long trip with high hopes that doctors here and Americans can help our son be normal again," said Mai Tran, Thien Nhan's adoptive mother.

Apparently Thien Nhan was so excited about coming to Houston, as seen on a home video of him hoping around during a lay over and making new friends, that he knocked himself out after the 30 hour-long trip.

Even in a deep slumber, the toddler instinctively grabs a hold of his American Godfather who will be helping him get a new lease on life.

"We have a surgeon friend here, Dr. Tue Dinh, who will be able to create a scrotum and in the next 10 years, we'll be able to have him be a fully functioning male."

The cost of the surgery the boy needs is estimated at to be at least $100,000 thousand dollars, but a local doctor has volunteered to do it for free.

The local community and the group, Kids Without Borders, are hosting a welcome party for the boy on Sunday at a Galleria hotel.