[WATCH NOW] ‘‘Napalm girl’s’’ chance at healing 43 year old scars

A photo from the Vietnam War around 43 years ago of a small girl standing naked crying out in pain shook the world.

Since then, 9-year-old Kim Phuc came to be known as the “napalm girl”. More than a third of her body was burnt, leaving her with scars that that are four times as thick as her skin in some places, reports various news portals such as Today.com and Guardian.

Forty-three years ago, the South Vietnamese army accidentally dropped the jelly-like chemical called Napalm on her village, Trang Bang, outside of Saigon.

More than 40 years have gone now, and she can hide the scars beneath the long sleeves, but that betrays the pain she has had to endure since that errant napalm strike in 1972, reports a news portal Guardian.

Now she has a new chance to heal, a prospect she believed was only possible in a life after death.

Doctor Jill Waibel examines Kim Phuc before the first of several laser treatments to reduce pain and the appearance of burn scars in her back and left arm. Photo: AP

“So many years I thought that I have no more scars, no more pain when I’m in heaven. But now – heaven on earth for me!” Phuc said.  

She will be treated in Miami by a dermatologist who specialises in laser treatments for burn patients.

Jill Waibel of the Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute, says the treatment will smooth and soften the pale, thick scar tissue that ripples from her left hand up her arm, up her neck to her hairline and down almost all of her back, according to Guardian.