Acehnese girl all smiles after doctors remove bullet from her brain
Acehnese girl all smiles after doctors remove bullet from her brain
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post/Tangerang
Acehnese girl Marlina, 16, was all smiles on Friday, days after a
team of doctors successfully removed a bullet that had been
lodged in her brain since July 2004.
Doctors at the Siloam Gleneagles Hospital in Karawai, Banten,
said that the high school girl should be able to return home in
two weeks.
"I feel relieved now. I no longer get constant headaches now
that the bullet has been taken from my head," Marlina said to The
Jakarta Post at the hospital on Friday.
It was about 11 a.m. on July 8 last year when Marlina and her
elder sister Sukarni, 18, were cooking lunch in the kitchen
behind their house in Tanjung Beuridi village, Mantang Geumpang
Dua district, Bireun, 257 kilometers from Banda Aceh.
Suddenly, a clash between the Indonesian Military (TNI) and
members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) broke out near their
house.
"Our mother told us to run into the house and we did it. But,
Marlina went out again to get something and as she was coming
back in she suddenly fell to the ground and fainted," said
Sukarni, who attended to Marlina at the hospital. The family then
realized that a stray bullet had struck the girl.
In a desperate condition, Marlina was rushed to the nearest
community health center. But the health center then transferred
her to Cut Nyak Dien Hospital in Lhokseumawe, which then referred
her to a hospital in Banda Aceh, where she was again transferred
to Adam Malik Hospital in Medan.
In Medan, doctors said that if they operated on Marlina she
would likely die from blood loss. An X-ray showed that the bullet
had lodged in the girl's cerebellum.
"There was no solution, maybe because we were poor and could
not afford to pay for the surgery," said Sukarni, adding that the
family had to borrow Rp 35 million (US$3,500) just to send
Marlina to Medan.
Her family brought Marlina back to Aceh with the bullet still
embedded in her head. She suffered constant headaches throughout
the day.
"When the pain strikes, it really hurts. I take painkillers
regularly to neutralize the pain," Marlina said at the time.
With the pain, Marlina, a third-year student at Tanjung
Beuridi Junior High School, could barely concentrate on her
lessons.
After reading Marlina's plight in the Post last Oct. 12, the
Sukma Foundation, which is owned by the Media Group, and the
Indonesian Brain Foundation managed to track her down and took
her to Jakarta last Nov. 11.
A team of doctors led by Dr. Eka J. Wahjoepramono of the
Siloam Gleneagles Hospital in Karawaci managed to remove the 1.5-
centimeter-long, 3-millimeter-diameter projectile from the back
of her back brain last Monday.
"Thanks to The Jakarta Post for publishing Marlina's story. By
reading the article, we managed to find and help her," said Dewi
Malarangeng of the Indonesian Brain Foundation.