An 32 year old fisherman lost his two limbs on his daily fishing trip near his hometown in Vinh Linh District, Quang Tri Province. The unlucky man will forever loose his left arm and his left leg because he need and extra income for his family. Sadly, the extra income that he tried to get is about 0.3 USD, and the price he had to pay in return for 0.3 USD was so expensive.
Four years ago, the life of the victim family was became harder when his wife went away leaving him his elderly parents, their son and since then he has to earn their livings for the three generation family by himself. And the story was getting worse when the UXO accident happened to him by September 2, 2010 while he was among three men fishing in the sea.
Yesterday morning, as usual the victim went out to the sea with his two neighbors on a small bamboo boat to catch fishes and lobster by diving, the work that normally gives them around three to four US dollars for each per day. In addition, during the process of diving looking for lobsters and fishes, they also look for scrap metal that still left under the sea from the wartime for extra income beside their main business.
As his neighbors said, when the victim finish his first diving round, he found a mortar and he took along with him back to their bamboo boat giving the diving tools for another to dive. While he was trying to dismantle the mortar to sell as scrap metal, an explosion happened and it completely destroyed the bamboo boat, throwing the last man on the boat a few meters away. It was lucky for them that the man was just slightly injured and he still had chance to swim and hold the victim floated on the sea surface while the nearby boats were coming to help them and put a tourniquet around his arm’s amputee. After reaching the shore, they caught a car and went straight to Quang Tri Province because of the injuries were so severe, his brother said.
Thanks to the effort of the health staff on duty at Quang Tri Provincial General Hospital, the victim was saved life from his almost being death with his heart rate and blood pressure was around zero. Although he is now recovering without his two limbs, everyone at the hospital and his family are praying that he would still have his eyes not much affected, so he could have opportunities to earn living for his son and the family.
By Dang Quang Toan
Program Manager, Mine & Cluster Victim Assistance Program
Project RENEW Coordination Office
103 Nguyen Binh Khiem, Dong Ha, Quang Tri, Vietnam