Tokyo: The world still remembers the 1972 US bombing of Vietnam through the famous photojournalist Nik Utt’s ‘Napalm Girl’ picture. After 50 years, Kim Fuk Phan Thi, known to the world as the Napalm Girl, has changed the last scar of her burns through treatment. Kim Fook is 59 years old today.
9-year-old Kim Phuc was playing in the yard when America dropped the bomb. After being warned to escape, Kim ran away moments before the bomb fell, but was fatally burned. Nik Ut took a picture of the girl, whose clothes were burning and running naked in the heat, and she was immediately taken to the hospital.
Kim Fook was in a condition where the epidermis, which is the outer part of the skin, and the dermis, which is the layer just below, were completely burned. He underwent 17 surgeries that year but had to continue many treatments afterwards. In 2015, a doctor named Jill Swiber in Miami, America, heard of Kim’s news and agreed to provide free treatment. After 50 years, the last scars were removed. Pulitzer winner Nick Utt was also at the hospital to snap the latest picture of Kim lying down laughing.
“I am no longer a poor girl. I am no longer a victim of war. I am a friend, a helper and a grandmother. A survivor of war and a doer calling for peace,” Kim Phuc said.