BOY LOST HAND AND EYE IN WAR-ERA UXO ACCIDENT

The explosion badly injured Quan. He lost the left hand, left eye and two fingers in the right hand. In addition, he was seriously injured in his chest and two legs. After the accident, he was taken to Quang Tri General Hospital for first aid and intensive treatment.

Tran Dinh Quan had just finished his study at grade 11 nearly three months ago and will be in the last grade at High school next school year. During his summer holidays, he stayed at home and often helped his parents with housework and farming. August 9th 2005 was a free day to Quan as he decided to excavate a bomb crater in his garden to make it become a pond for raising fish.

No one else in the family could help Quan on that day because they were all occupied with other farm jobs. Therefore, Quan had to start his work very early in the morning to avoid the sunshine. Rain and sun had made soil in the bomb crater so soft and loose that was much easy for Quan�s work. Everything went through quite smoothly in the morning even though he had finished a small part of the work. A short nap after lunchtime had filled Quan with more energy. Quan thus felt very excited to continue his work. As he dug slowly in the middle of the bomb crater, he found a bullet. He then stopped digging and got into the house. He was a bit curious to know what the bullet was, whether it had exploded or not. He then dropped in into the floor and stepped away to turn on the TV. It suddenly detonated. It was at 14h at that time. Luckily, no one else except Quan was at home to be injured.
Quan is the third child in the family of 7 members. His parents are farmers. His eldest brother, who is now 23 years old, had to stop school to attend a vocational training for learning a job to help his old parents. The next child is also a son who completed High school already and was unemployed at the moment. The two youngest, one aged 14, learning at the 9th grade and one was born in 2001, still very small.
When CPI staff came to respond to the accident and met Quan�s family members in Quang tri General Hospital, they seemed to be panic and felt very wretched. They could not believe what had happened to Quan, who was lying in the hospital bed in very bad condition because of the severe injury.