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Works Cited Egan, Nicole Weisensee. "THE GIRL in the PHOTO Surviving the Scars of War." People, vol. 85, no. 10,

29 Feb. 2016, p. 70. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=f5h&AN=113103692&site=eds-live&authtype=ip,uid&CustID=s6735259.

THE GIRL IN THE PHOTO Surviving the Scars of War HER SUFFERING SYMBOLIZED THE WORST OF THE VIETNAM WAR. NOW NAPALM VICTIM KIM PHUC HAS A CHANCE TO FINALLY HEAL

When napalm bombs began falling outside the South Vietnamese temple where her family had taken refuge on June 8, 1972, 9-year-old Kim Phuc couldn't help but stare. In that moment a bomb landed right behind her, knocking her to the ground face-first, as globs of napalm landed on her left shoulder and neck and over the back of her body, igniting as they touched her skin. "I was on fire," she says, "and I was surrounded by smoke and fire. I was terrified."

Miraculously, Phuc overcame her terror and ran out of the fire—and into the pages of history. Associated Press photographer Nick Ut's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Phuc crying and screaming as she ran down the road became an iconic image of the Vietnam War. "I was burned over 65 percent of my body," says Phuc, 52, who now lives in Toronto with Bui Huy Toan, 55, her husband of 23 years. "My chances of dying were 100 percent. The doctors gave up on me."

Somehow Phuc survived, and for the past 20 years, despite debilitating pain from her injuries, she has traveled the world as an inspirational speaker, spreading her message of "love, hope and forgiveness. I teach everyone that if that little girl in the photo can learn how to forgive, so can you."

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Now, more than 40 years later, Phuc finally has the chance to rid herself of the last reminders of that day—her scars. Dr. Jill Waibel, a Miami dermatologist, is treating her, free of charge, with a combination of fractional lasers, a pioneering technique she designed specifically for burn patients. "I hope to get rid of the agony Phuc has been in for all these years," says Waibel. Phuc has had three treatments so far and will undergo at least four more. "For years I prayed I'd have no pain, no scars, in heaven," says Phuc, a devout Christian. The treatments have given her hope that she may not have to wait that long for relief. "I'm feeling less pain already," she says."I'm so excited."

Details from that day are still seared into her memory. In the chaos she remembers running for safety toward journalists and soldiers. "One of the soldiers gave me some water to drink," she says. "Then he poured it over me, and I cried, 'Hot! Hot! Hot!' and I passed out." The water had caused the napalm to burn deeper, magnifying her already torturous pain.

When Phuc awoke, she was in a hospital, covered in bandages from head to toe. "It was horrible. Every day the nurses took off my bandages, put me in the burn bath, and then they cut all my dead skin off," says Phuc. "I cried so much, and if I couldn't cry anymore, I passed out," she says. After 14 months and 17 operations, Phuc returned to a home and village she barely recognized. She felt damaged, convinced she'd never marry or have children. "I thought, 'No man will love me,'" she says. "My heart was filled with hatred for what had been done to me."

She tried putting her pain and anger aside, enrolling in medical school to become like the doctors who had saved her. But the Vietnamese government forced her to drop out so she'd be available for interviews about "the girl in the photo." "I hated my life," says Phuc. "I had no future, no hope. I stopped wanting to live."

She credits a conversion to Christianity at age 19 with helping her overcome her bitterness. And while the Vietnamese government eventually allowed her to go to Cuba to attend medical school, she found her injuries had left her without the stamina to become a doctor. Still, it was there that she met Bui Huy, a fellow student from North Vietnam who fell in love with her, scars and all. "He said, 'Kim, every time I touch your scars I know how much you suffered, and I love you more,'" she says, tearing up at the memory. They married five years later (they have two sons, Thomas, 21, and Stephen, 18) and defected to Canada together in 1992. "When I got to Canada, I say, 'No more,'" she recalls. "I wanted to escape that picture."

Since then she's finally come to embrace the image that symbolizes so much pain in her life. Now prominently displayed on the home page of the Kim Foundation (kimfoundation.com), which she created in 1997 to help other child victims of war, it stands as a reminder of how far she's come. "I share my story to help people," she says. "That is my purpose. I'm so thankful to be alive."

'I hope my pain will be relieved after I finish these treatments'

—KIM PHUC

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PHOTO (COLOR): FINDING FORGIVENESS "It's a miracle I'm alive," says Phuc. "I've learned how to move on, how to cope, and I'm thankful."

PHOTO (COLOR): A RUN FOR HER LIFE "I remember thinking, 'I got burned, so I will be ugly. I'm not normal anymore,'" says Phuc (in the iconic 1972 photo).

PHOTO (COLOR): A LITTLE GIRL'S PAIN "I used to think, 'Why me? Why do I have to suffer?'" says Phuc.

PHOTO (COLOR): HOPE FOR A PAIN-FREE LIFE Clockwise from top: Phuc with Dr. Waibel before her third treatment in Miami in December 2015; Phuc undergoing her first treatment last September; Phuc shows her scars before starting her laser therapy in September 2015. "I was really moved by Kim's story," says Waibel. "She's in severe pain and has suffered terribly all these years."

PHOTO (COLOR): [See caption above]

PHOTO (COLOR): UNCONDITIONAL LOVE Bui Huy (with Phuc in Miami), a social worker at a group home for adults with mental and physical disabilities, supports the family.