Daw Khin, 57, stepped on a landmine while cleaning her outdoor toilet.
She had only recently returned to her village in Myanmar's eastern Karenni State in 2022, more than a year after being forced to flee by a military air strike.
"I didn't think the military would lay mines in my house," she told NGO Human Rights Watch.
The doctors amputated her right leg at the thigh, her left leg below the knee, and one of her fingers.
"I found out my legs were gone," she said. "I was crying for weeks and so depressed.
"I asked my daughter so many questions, I didn't remember anything."
Amid the country's long-running civil war, more people are being killed or injured by landmines in Myanmar than any other country in the world, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines' (ICBL) most recent Landmine Monitor report.
The campaign documented 1,003 civilian deaths and injuries from landmines and explosive remnants of war in 2023, nearly three times the previous year.
Human rights groups largely blame the military junta, which seized power in a coup four years ago and has since been fighting an insurgency against the exiled government's People's Defence Forces and an array of ethnic armed organisations.
The junta's forces are accused of turning landmines into weapons of terror, planting them indiscriminately in civilian areas — homes, fields, churches, and schools.
Last year, the tide appeared to be turning against the military, which suffered major losses and began to crumble in ethnic areas.
Saw Nanda Hsue, from the Karen Human Rights Group, said the military's use of landmines had escalated to unprecedented levels.
"In the past, they didn't lay so many mines in productive farmland because they wanted to seize it," he told the ABC.
"Now, as they lose territory, their mentality is, 'If we can't have it, no-one can.'"
The ICBL said the ethnic armed groups and resistance fighters also used anti-personnel mines.
However, it said the Myanmar military manufactured its own landmines and deployed them on a scale unmatched by other groups.
According to the ICBL's report, the junta had even forced civilians to act as "minesweepers".
It documented several incidents where residents were forced to clear landmines along roads the Myanmar army wanted to use.
"Landmines are being used to terrorise civilians, not just in combat," ICBL spokesperson Yeshua Moser Puangsuwan said.
The indiscriminate proliferation of landmines had become a symbol of the junta's desperation, said American humanitarian aid worker David Eubank, who founded the Free Burma Rangers in Myanmar.
"More Burmans are joining the resistance, and that terrifies the military," Mr Eubank said, in reference to the Burman ethnic majority which populates the more developed centre of the country.
"They just look at the enemy and think this is a fight to the death, and landmines are part of that," he said.
Mr Eubank said that during the military's retreat in Karenni State in 2022 government soldiers torched a church.
"We found eight mines around the church," Mr Eubank said. "I nearly stepped on one myself."
The ABC attempted to contact the junta for comment.
Jungle medics on the front lines
In the face of the escalating crisis, grassroots healthcare networks have expanded.
Saw Klesi leads the Backpack Healthcare Team, a mobile network that began with just a handful of volunteers over a decade ago.
Today, it comprises 20 teams of about five workers equipped with backpacks or cool boxes full of medical supplies.
"We used to focus on primary health care, but now we do everything — trauma treatment, maternal care, even treating landmine victims," Saw Klesi said.
Humanitarian organisations say the military has targeted medics, and some have been injured after stepping on landmines.
Despite these dangers, the team continues its work, travelling on foot, motorbike, boat, or even elephant to reach Myanmar's most remote and dangerous regions.
"We can't travel through cities anymore — everywhere is blocked," Saw Klesi explained. "There are more people in need than ever before."
The journey to access treatment is difficult.
"In many rural ethnic areas people are scared to go to the hospital even if they live near one of the cities as they don't trust the military," added Saw Klesi.
Many patients with severe injuries must endure months-long treks to reach the Thai border, where organisations like Burma Children Medical Clinic (BCMC) provide essential care.
BCMC director Kanchana Thornton responded to the growing demand by reopening a prosthetics clinic at the Thai border town of Mae Sot, where a donated 3D printer produces prosthetic hands.
"We've made breakthroughs with functional hands, though elbows remain a challenge," Ms Thornton said.
She relies on donations, such as the 340 wheelchairs provided by charity Wheelchairs for Kids run by Senior Australian of the Year Olly Pickett.
However, she said it was increasingly difficult to keep up with the rise in displaced people needing assistance.
Protester turned medic
It's not just established organisations stepping up to address the landmine crisis.
Xiao Yar Yar, a 21-year-old former university student and anti-coup protester, trained under a jungle medic and now educates rural communities on first aid and landmine awareness.
To fund his work, he's been dancing and documenting his efforts on Facebook.
"I started posting videos of myself dancing in the jungle," he said.
"People loved them, and donations started coming in."
With those funds, he distributes rice and other supplies.
Xiao Yar Yar and groups like the Backpack Healthcare Team teach villagers how to identify and avoid explosives and map suspected minefields.
However, accurately mapping landmines is often reactive.
"We can only map some areas with minefields when someone steps on a mine or a cow is blown up," said Saw Nanda Hsue, from the Karen Human Rights Group.
Some activists have reportedly taken a more direct approach to the problem of landmines, said Myanmar conflict researcher Kim Jolliffe.
"One resistance member told me he convinced a soldier to lay only half of his assigned mines," he said.
"The military unit had suffered a defeat and was trying to regroup, so he tried to reason with him and explained that children and civilians will be the victims."
Rising casualties
A UNICEF spokesperson from Myanmar said between January and September last year at least 250 children were killed or injured by landmines — the highest globally.
"Children have been impacted by landmines and explosive remnants of war near their homes, playgrounds, on their way to school and farmlands — spaces where they should feel safe," the UN agency said.
Paing, a 14-year-old from Shan state, was injured in 2023 when he went out searching for his family’s cow with his father.
"I suddenly heard a loud bang, and my body flew above the ground. I thought it was a mortar dropping nearby, but actually I had stepped on a landmine," he told UNICEF.
His right leg had to be amputated to save his life.
"Now I only dream of being able to somehow support my parents, and also my family when I have mine some day," he said.
A fight to the death
Observers say that despite the junta's recent losses there's no end in sight for Myanmar's conflict.
"The Myanmar military is under unprecedented strain, being widely hated and having suffered a series of humiliating defeats in 2024," said Tom Kean, a researcher at the International Crisis Group.
Yet despite "low morale and internal resentment" towards junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, Mr Kean said a culture of "institutional unity" has kept soldiers fighting.
The UN forecasts the number of people displaced by the war will rise by a further 30 per cent to 4.5 million people during 2025.
For those who attempt to return to their homes, survivors continue to face risks in many areas: they may have survived an air strike but could be killed or injured by landmines in their farmland.
Yet grassroots efforts persist despite the dangers.
"We've seen too many bad things, but if educating or treating someone can save a life, we will keep going," said Xiao Yar Yar.
Mr Puangsuwan, of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, warned that even when the conflict ends the impact of landmines would be long-lasting as people return to their homes.
"There's going to be a lot of agricultural land that has to be cleared before it can be used," he said.
