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.