"Ta lives in Khammouane Province in Southern Laos. He has seven children. Ta is a victim of Unexploded Ordinance (UXO). His story demonstrates the ongoing dangers and impact of UXO contamination in Lao PDR.
Ta knew that it was dangerous to handle UXOs. He had always resisted the temptation to collect bombs and rockets to either sell as scrap metal or harvest their explosive materials. But one day, as Ta studied a corroded bomblet, he slowly convinced himself that it posed little danger.
The badly weathered casing was partly open. Ta could clearly see that the bomb's two halves were slightly separated from one another. Bomblets sometimes split as they age and corrode; when they do the bomblet looks as if it is smiling. Of course, from a different angle that smile turns into a scowl or smirk. The cracked casing was misleading. It didn't indicate a safe bomblet. With detonator and explosive intact the bomb still possessed the power to maim or kill.
When Ta inspected the bomblet he envisioned opening the bomblet, removing its 90 grams of TNT and using its explosives for fishing. He had seen other men light a fuse, drop a bomblet into a pond, wait for the boom, and then skim stunned fish off the surface. Ta just couldn't shake visions of himself proudly carrying a basket of fish into the market. "If I weren't poor, I never would have touched that bombie. It's just that I thought I could sell fish for money."
It took over six hours from the time of the explosion to reach the hospital. However, staff at the small district hospital had little to offer Ta. There were no surgeons at the hospital and the dispensary had no blood, morphine, oxygen or other supplies to combat shock. As they were unable to assist him, Ta was transferred to a larger hospital another two hours away. In total, it took over nine hours for Ta to receive adequate medical care. Ta lost both arms and an eye and had to sell all of his families’ livestock; a small herd consisting of five water buffalo, pigs, ducks and chickens, to pay for his medical bills. This immediately drove Ta's entire extended family into deeper poverty. Having lost both of his arms Ta himself describes how over the next 4 years that the loss of his limbs meant that he had to ‘eat like a dog’.
One day, staff from the UXO clearance company PCL found Ta whilst undertaking community liaison work. The clearance company arranged to bring Ta, along with 4 other people, for rehabilitation at COPE.
Ta received three different types of arms from COPE and is now able to cook and help his family re-build their home. He was provided with one cosmetic arm and one split hook (functional) arm for each side.
Before this Ta was dependent upon the help of his family to do even the most basic tasks. When wearing the split hook, Ta was amazed at how much he could do for himself. He was absolutely delighted with his new arms, he said that just not to have to ask his children every time he wanted a drink of water would make a huge difference to his life. He had told us that being able to feed himself was a major achievement. Ta is doing well and very happy with his new arms."