Condition in Shanghai Hospital improve
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Conditions at Sanglah General Hospital improved significantly on Tuesday with the arrival of five cool storage containers to store the remaining 171 bodies from last week's blast victims.
The hospital's morgue and emergency unit was closed to the media and the public on Tuesday following the arrival of foreign investigators. Hospital officials said the closure was aimed at providing security to victims being treated there and also to prevent disturbance to the body identification process at the morgue.
Previously, the bodies were laid on the floor of the hospital's morgue due to a lack of cool storage facilities. The hospital's morgue is only capable of handling 10 bodies at the most.
The five containers have all been located at Sanglah hospital. Two containers came from Surabaya, another two from Australia and the fifth was donated by a Balinese businessman. The hospital now has 12 cool storage containers.
The containers from Australia arrived at 5 a.m. on Tuesday on board a Royal Australian Air Force Hercules aircraft. Each container can accommodate between 12 and 15 bodies, head of the Bali Health Office Molin Yudiarsa said .
The two containers from Surabaya, meanwhile, are specially designed to accommodate between 20 and 30 bodies each.
The removal of the bodies from the floor to the cool storage containers was witnessed by the head of the National Intelligence Agency, A.M. Hendropriyono, and Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno, who were on the island to visit the victims and the blast site.
Meanwhile, 10 of the 181 bodies have been sent to their home countries. One of the dead, an Australian, was cremated at Mumbul in the Nusa Dua area at the request of his family. The body of a U.S. citizen had also been sent home.
The crisis center at Sanglah hospital has also received reports of 49 missing people, consisting of 22 foreigners, 10 of them women, and 27 Indonesians, consisting of 19 men and eight women. The missing had been reported to the Crisis Center by their families.
Among those missing were four Australians, two Swedes, one Dutch national, two South Koreans, one American and two French. Some of the missing were identified as Mariae Johansson, 29, and Dimittrios Anders Konstan, 27, both from Sweden, Jimmy Lumintang, 31, (Holland), Eun Yang Moon, 30, (S. Korea), Megan Eileen Heffernan, 29, (USA).
Head of the Indonesian Police's Forensic Department's medical team Sr. Comr. Edi Suryatna stated that the missing people had not yet been confirmed as victims but as people reported missing by their families.
"Don't get it wrong, the names (in the missing report) are of missing persons, they are not victims," he said as quoted by Antara.
The Bali provincial administration has allocated Rp 1 billion to assist the blast victims.
"The money will be used to cover the costs of burying the dead and treating those who are still in the hospital," Molin said.
He added that the money was intended for both Indonesians and foreigners who had suffered in the blast.
Those who had paid their hospital bills or bought their own medicines could file a claim with the Bali Health Office on Jl. Melati in Denpasar, said Molin.
According to data released by the Sanglah Crisis Center, the blast claimed 181 lives and wounded 328 others. The wounded are being treated in 13 hospitals in Denpasar, with the largest number found at Sanglah hospital. The other hospitals include the Puri Raharja, Army, Kasih Ibu, Wangaya, Dharma Husaha, Dharma Yadnya and Prima Medika hospitals.
Most of the patients have been transported to Australia. There are 35 remaining patients, mostly suffering from severe burns, who are being treated in emergency care.