Ban Advocates Blog

Pham Quy Thi, based on an interview in Dublin, 20 May 2008

My name is Pham Quy Thi. I am 52 years old and I live in Vietnam, in the Quang Tri Province, near the city of Hue. I am married and I have three children, a daughter, 28 years old, and two sons, 25 and 21 years old.

I am a farmer and I work my own rice fields. The accident occurred in 1977 while I was working in the fields, ploughing the soil with a weeding hoe. Unfortunately, on that day, the hoe hit a soil clod with a cluster munition hidden inside. I lost consciousness five minutes after the accident due to blood loss. I was transported to the hospital by the other farmers.

I was injured all over my body, especially my right arm. I had to suffer four surgeries. The first one was to amputate my right arm, while the other three were needed to take all the remaining pieces of metal that were still in my other arm, both of my legs, and in my abdomen out of my body. I was hospitalised for about 20 days.