‘Napalm girl’ Kim Phuc Phan Ti, seen in one of the Vietnam War’s most iconic photographs, underwent the final skin treatment clinic in Miami, US, 50 years after she sustained horrific burns in a napalm strike.
Napalm girl gets her final skin treatment
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Five decades ago, a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl fled to save herself as US fighter jets dropped napalm bombs. An image of her running naked, screaming in fear is one of history’s tragic annals. Kim Phuc Phan Ti, nicknamed ‘Napalm girl’ at the age of 59 received the final skin treatment for the horrific burns she sustained in the attack. She has been undergoing multiple procedures and treatments to relieve pain from the third-degree burns on her body, which she suffered in a napalm strike on her village in June 1972, during the Vietnam War.
In a recent interview with CBS News, she recounted her terrifying experience.
Phan Ti said that she was playing with other children when Vietnamese soldiers told her to run. She looked up and saw an airplane dropping bombs. “Too hot! Too hot!” she screamed while running away. She suffered third-degree burns all over her body.
“I still remember what I thought that moment – ‘Oh my goodness, I got burned, then I will be ugly, then people will see me a different way. Now 50 years later, I am no longer a victim of war, I am not the Napalm girl, now I am a friend, am a helper, I’m a grandmother and now I am a survivor calling out for peace,” she stated.
The aftermath of the horrific burns
She was discharged from the hospital following a year-long stay and 17 surgeries. However, she underwent several additional procedures in the next decade to help her properly move. Despite the treatments and surgery, every single day was full of suffering.
Phan Ti and her husband fled the nation in 1992 and sought asylum in Canada. In 2015, she was able to start getting treatment after getting in touch with Dr. Jill Zwaibel in Miami. Dr. Zwaibel, knowing her story, treated her free of charge.
Nick Ut, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist was the photographer who captured the iconic ‘Napalm girl’ image before rushing her to the hospital. Once again, he joined Phan Ti in Miami for the procedure and took more images. This time with a smile on her face.