November 13, 2015. Everyone knows the photo of June 8, 1972, taken by photographer Nick Ut.
A little girl 9-year-old runs naked on the road after a bombing in Napalm from his Vietnamese village.
Some see her screaming in horror, in fact she screaming in pain. She was severely burned to the back and back of her left arm. She is naked for taking off her painful clothes.
This photo caused a sensation at the time and in every sense of the word. Kim Phuc is naked, this is usually not allowed, but the American press has decided to publish this testimony anyway. This photo shows, with great reality, the horrors of war.
It’s so realistic that President Nixon doubted, at one point, the authenticity of this photo.
Associated Press photographer Nick Ut won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
What happened to Kim Phuc after this bombing?
The photographer, himself Vietnamese, understood what Kim was yelling: “too hot”. He was, without doubt, one of the few to understand.
He put his camera on the ground to give it the water he had to cool it down. Then he took charge of her and her family to bring them to the American hospital in Saigon.
The doctors just wanted to relieve Kim, they thought she was too burnt to survive, but Nick Ut convinced them to take care of her.
Kim Phuc owes her life to this photographer, she could not have survived without immediate support.
Once admitted to the hospital, Kim Phuc spent fourteen months there and underwent 17 surgeries. His body was 65% burnt and 35% of his skin had to be grafted.
The care was paid for by private funds from associations. After discharge from the hospital, the child continued to suffer from severe headaches and burns. Her mother would buy her blocks of ice that she put on her head to soothe her, and her father would make herbal ointments for her healing purposes.
The little girl was unable to attend normal schooling. It was monitored daily by the government, as a symbol of national war.
In 1986 Kim Phuc had the opportunity to go to Cuba to study. She goes, but has to drop out of classes because of diabetes which blurs her eyesight.
This trip allows her to meet Bui Huy Toan, also Vietnamese, who becomes her husband in 1992.
They go on their honeymoon to Russia and on the way back they take advantage of a supply stopover to flee to Terres Neuves. They settle in Canada, which gives them political asylum.
Kim Phuc continued to be talked about and even became a UN “Goodwill Ambassador”. She created the Kim Foundation to care for children who are victims of war.
Forty years later, a dermatology center calms his suffering.
A dermatologist from Miami contacted Kim Phuc to offer to relieve her suffering through laser treatment sessions. This is Doctor Waibel, whose father-in-law Jill Waibel has a dermatology clinic, he was touched by Kim Phuc’s story. Each consultation costs between 1500 and 2000 dollars, but the care is offered.
Kim Phuc, who never thought to stop suffering one day is amazed at what is happening to her. The laser smooths and softens scarred tissue. She admits that the sessions are a bit painful and her skin reddens in places. She has no plans to drop the treatment at all, she hopes her scars will be more inconspicuous and she is extremely grateful.
Photo credit : – Public Domain
