Even people who aren't old enough to remember the Vietnam War recognize the iconic image of a little girl, naked and covered with napalm burns. Associated Press photographer Nick Ut captured the shot in of Kim Phuc Phan Thai (Kim Phuc for short) in 1972, just before helping the 9-year-old girl to a hospital in South Vietnam.
"Sixty-five percent of my body got burned," she told HealthDay in an interview published this week. "I should be dead." But Kim Phuc is far from it.
A Woman of Grace Now, nearly four decades later, Kim Phuc is a peace activist, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and public speaker. She recently shared her story at a conference of burn survivors and burn-care specialists in NYC.
Although the 46-year-old mother of two suffered nerve damage and still feels pain from the third-degree burns that covered more than half her body, she expressed a message of hope and optimism even in the face of tremendous suffering. Her story inspired not just doctors at the conference but other burn survivors who were there to find support.
The Girl in the Picture Kim Phuc's burns were so severe that doctors thought she was unlikely to survive, but that wasn't her first concern. "I still remember my thoughts at that moment: I would be ugly and people would treat me in a different way," she once said. She spent over a year in the hospital and endured numerous surgeries, almost dying several times.
Ut's photo later won a Pulitzer Prize and became an international symbol of the agony suffered by both sides during the Vietnam War. An entire book, "The Girl in the Picture" was written about the power of the image, which helped turn the tide of public opinion.
For all Kim Phuc has been through, she has managed to find a silver lining: "The pain I consider as my protection. It humbles me, and helps me to never take my life for granted," she told HealthDay. "And to share my story."
I remember this incident and that horrible picture of those poor children.
Thanks for posting the update on Kim Phuc. I had forgotten all about her.
I am glad she is doing so well considering what she went through.
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I've learned that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon and
all the less important ones just never go away.
And the real pains in the ass are permanent.
...Glenn and I were just talking about pictures that had greatly affected us the other day, and here you posted one of them. Thanks for sharing this article.
I think everyone knows what love is. At least a majority of the people. Everyone loves someone and will shed tears when that person leaves an emptiness in their heart.
The problem is that not everyone loves everyone. That is the reason we don't have world peace.
I think everyone knows what love is. At least a majority of the people. Everyone loves someone and will shed tears when that person leaves an emptiness in their heart.
The problem is that not everyone loves everyone. That is the reason we don't have world peace.
