Australian victims visit blast site, hospital in Bali
Australian victims visit blast site, hospital in Bali
Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali
Leanne Woodgate suddenly started shouting hysterically and then
ran away when she returned to ground zero of last year's Bali
bombings in the resort area of Legian.
Her friend said that she was still too traumatized by the
deadly blast.
Woodgate was one of 12 Australians injured in the bombings who
bravely went back to the blast site and Sanglah Hospital, where
almost all the victims of the Oct. 12 Bali bombings were taken
for treatment.
As many as 82 of the 202 fatalities were Australians.
Grief and tears marked their visit to the hospital.
"The government has warned us not to visit Bali if it is not
necessary. But we're determined to do so," said Nicole McLean,
another victim who is a resident of Melbourne.
Her right hand, which was severely injured in the blast,
became infected and had to be amputated.
Accompanied by families and friends, the victims paid a visit
to Sanglah Hospital, where they were treated following the blast.
They visited the hospital's emergency ward, where medical
workers gave them first aid, and the operation room. Some of the
victims broke down in tears when they stepped into the intensive
care unit and met several of the nurses and doctors who had
treated them following the bombings.
The visitors later recounted with each other the tragic
details of their terrifying experiences in the aftermath of the
blasts, which were carried out by a group of perpetrators in two
nightclubs in Legian. Once in a while, several of them hugged
each other for support.
The victims, however, skipped seeing the hospital morgue.
"We have no desire to visit the morgue. It's too hard to
imagine what happened that night," McLean said.
McLean, who now has to use an artificial hand, said that she
did not want to think about the perpetrators of the blast, adding
that she was too busy thinking about her condition. Several
suspects are in police custody and could face the death sentence
if they are convicted of the crime.
Another visitor, 43-year-old Peter Hughes, said he sympathized
with Muslims in Java, where several of the suspects were from.
"Just because of a few bad people, they have to pay the
price," he said.
Hughes suffered burns to almost 55 percent of his body from
the blast at Paddy's Cafe, one of the two nightclubs bombed on
that fateful night. The other explosion was at the Sari Club.
Hughes came back to Bali to meet the people who helped him
through the tragedy and to visit the blast site.
Hospital spokesman Putu Putra Wisada said the hospital was
grateful for the visitors, who in turn extended their
appreciation to the hospital.
State-owned Sanglah Hospital had to deal with hundreds of
injured blast victims and, at the same time, keep the dead bodies
until they could be identified.