Home » Health » “The little girl burned with napalm” received its last care, fifty years after the famous photograph

“The little girl burned with napalm” received its last care, fifty years after the famous photograph

There are these legendary photographs that remain forever etched in the memory of whoever looks at them. The one taken on June 8, 1972 by Nick Ut, when napalm bombs were raining down on the village of Trảng Bàng, in southern Vietman, is one of them.

Then aged 9, a naked little girl appears in the center of the black-and-white image, her face contorted by a cry of pain from the burns that the jelly essence inflicted on her. This little girl is Phan Thị Kim Phúc, better known as Kim Phuc.

Fifty years after the atrocities of the Vietnam War, at the age of 59, she has just received her final skin treatment, reports ITV.

Throughout her life, physical pain never left her, sometimes forcing her to limit her movements. It is therefore with joy that Kim Phuc is now finishing her laser sessions, which she started several years ago.

“Fifty years later, I am no longer a victim of war, I am no longer the girl burned with Napalmshe says at the microphone of CBS. I am now a friend, a helper, a grandmother and a survivor calling for peace.”

An effective treatment

Living in Canada since the 1990s, Kim Phuc clearly remembers this day of June 8, 1972. “As children, we were only allowed to play near the bomb shelter. I remember after lunch the South Vietnamese soldiers shouted at the children to run. I still remember what I thought at that moment: ‘Oh my God, I’ve been burned, I’m going to be ugly, people are going to see me differently’.

It was without counting on Nick Ut who, after taking the shot that has become sadly famous, decides to help the young girl by bringing her to the hospital. Present during his last laser treatment session, the photographer, whose image won him the Pulitzer Prize, remembers that day.

“Even the doctor said she was going to die, there was no way she was still alive. I asked them three times [de la soigner] and they said no, so I showed my press card and said if she died my picture would be on the front page of all the papers. They got worried and took her inside right away.”

Thanks to the treatment she receives for free at the Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute, Kim Phuc is doing better. The photographer, who intends to keep in touch with her, confirms the improvement in her condition: “She looks better, she’s so happy, she’s always smiling.”

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