The explosion at 2:00 PM in Sunday afternoon on February 7, 2010 wounded 04 minority men, who are closely related to each others, while they were weeding and cultivating coffee trees. The accident occurred in Tram Village, Huong Tan Commune of Huong Hoa District, where in October 2008, another explosion from a kitchen of a Van Kieu family killed the four-year-old son and injured the mother and the three-year-old daughter.
Four victims are Van Kieu men in their middle and late twenties. After the accident, the four men received the first aid by the commune health staff then they were transferred to Khe Sanh Health
Station and three of them had to be transported to Quang Tri General Hospital because of their serious wounds.
One of the victims, born in 1983, suffered severe injuries to his both legs and arm from the explosion. “When I was working with my three relatives and trying to remove weeds from a coffee tree by a hoe, I heard a “boom” when my hoe touched the ground and the air became dark and I knew nothing until my arrival to Quang Tri.” he said. The explosion not only made his two legs badly injured but also chopped his right hand’s thump and index finger.
Dr. Phu, an advanced life support trainer, said that two of the victims didn’t bleed much but some tiny, sharp shrapnel went through their abdomen that caused them terribly hurt and they were carefully examined by endoscopy and X-ray to see if we have to operate on them.
The victim said his poor family has 11 members and he is among the oldest persons who have to work for his family’s daily food and he said he was so worried to know that he is badly injured and he hope to recover soon to work for the family who are dependable on a small size of water-rice farming and coffee planting.
According to the Information/Data section of Project RENEW, from 1975 to 2008, Huong Hoa District has 1,088 UXO victims in this district of which 319 people were killed.
In 2008-2009, with the support from Trauma Care Foundation, Project RENEW and Quang Tri Health Service had organized first aid training for 323 local health staff and these staff takes an important role in giving first aid for trauma victims since then.
By Dang Quang Toan
Program Manager, Mine & Cluster Victim Assistance Program
Project RENEW Coordination Office
103 Nguyen Binh Khiem, Dong Ha
Quang Tri, Vietnam