"Napalm Girl" gets final skin treatments 50 years later

Toronto Sun

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"Napalm Girl" gets final skin treatments 50 years later

Liz Braun - 2h ago

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It was 50 years ago that the iconic photo of a naked, 9 year old Kim Phuc Phan Ti — her clothes and much of the skin on her back burned off by napalm — captured the world’s attention.

© Provided by Toronto SunKim Phuc receives a laser treatment by Dr. Jill Waibel at the Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute, Tuesday, June 28, 2022, in Miami. Phuc was the subject 50 years ago of the Pulitzer Prize-winning

The award-winning photograph, taken by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut and dubbed “Napalm Girl” is one of the most famous war photos of all time; it helped turn the American public against the war.

 

 

Recovery for Kim Phuc took almost two years and 17 surgeries, and years later she still suffered intense pain, both physical and emotional.

She has said that converting to Christianity as a young woman changed everything: the photo she once hated for capturing all that pain became the key to her lifelong work for children, peace and forgiveness.

Phuc has written about her “elephant skin” as she calls it, and about some of the ongoing issues her childhood burn injury created, but the New York Post reports that Phuc has now had her final skin treatments.

Courtesy of surgeon Dr. Jill Waibel   at the Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute in Florida, Phuc received laser treatment on some of the areas on her back where she still experiences lingering pain.

The specialized treatments started a few years ago; Dr Waibel knew Phuc’s history and has done all the work pro bono.

Related video: Photog, subject mark 50th anniversary of iconic 'Napalm Girl' photo

A PICTURE ARGUABLY THE MOST POPULAR IN WAR HISTORY,

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Photog, subject mark 50th anniversary of iconic 'Napalm Girl' photo

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"Napalm Girl" gets final skin treatments 50 years later (msn.com)

 

The original burns she suffered as a child were so severe that doctors were sure Phuc would die.

It was the AP photographer, Nick Ut, who rushed her to hospital. As he told the Toronto Sun earlier in June , Ut, who was only 21 at the time, took Phuc in his car, but the first hospital they went to tried to turn them away.

“I took her to a hospital in Saigon and showed them my press pass,” Ut said.

“I told them, ‘If she dies, my picture will be on the front page of every newspaper in the world tomorrow.’

“They took her right away.”

© Provided by Toronto SunIn this June 8, 1972, file photo, 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, runs with her brothers and cousins, followed by South Vietnamese forces, down Route 1 near Trang Bang after a South Vietnamese plane accidentally dropped its flaming napalm on its own troops and civilians.

Kim Phuc defected to Canada in 1992 and still lives just outside Toronto. She and her husband raised two sons here and now have five grandchildren.

And she and Ut remain lifelong friends.

A public speaker and an advocate for children, Phuc is a goodwill ambassador for Unesco. She established  The Kim Foundation  to continue her work for children.

"Napalm Girl" gets final skin treatments 50 years later