Reunited with the Vietnamese 'girl in the picture'
A Vietnamese photographer, Nick Ut, was also covering events in South Vietnam that day.For years she lived in Vietnam, and at times her story was used as propaganda. She and her husband finally made it to Canada, where she now lives with him and her children. She has established the Kim Phuc Foundation, which provides medical and psychological assistance to child victims of war.
As Kim [Phuc] ran down the road, her arms outstretched and screaming for help, he took what is now seen as one of the most memorable images of the Vietnam War.
She was still running when Chris [Wain, a reporter for ITN] stopped her and poured water over her, while directing his crew to record the terrible scenes.
"We were short of film and my cameraman, the late, great Alan Downes, was worried that I was asking him to waste precious film shooting horrific pictures which were too awful to use. My attitude was that we needed to show what it was like, and to their lasting credit, ITN ran the shots."
Nick took Kim to the nearest hospital, the US-run Saigon First Children's Hospital. Shortly afterwards, his photograph and the film footage appeared all over the Western media.
One result was that everyone wanted to know what had happened to the little girl.
It was Chris who found Kim the following Sunday, in a small room at the British hospital.
"I asked a nurse how she was and she said she would die tomorrow," he says. So he got her moved to a specialist plastic surgery hospital, for life-saving treatment.
Kim stayed in hospital for 14 months and went through 17 operations, remaining in constant pain to this day.
Thirty-eight years ago, the nine-year old Kim looked to be on death's door. It's nice that she has gone on to live her life and is making a difference in the lives of other children touched by warfare.
No comments:
Post a Comment