Desperate search ends in Bali hospital ward

Desperate search ends in Bali hospital ward

Benito Lopulalan, Agence France-Presse/Denpasar

Rizal Sutisna's desperate search for his missing nephew ended in
a stifling ward of Bali's main hospital, where he found him lying
in a coma.

The young man, Hendrik Gunawan, had traveled here with 25
other employees of the Jakarta office of the China International
Freight company who were thrilled to be offered a trip to
Indonesia's idyllic resort island.

Like many other holidaymakers they opted to have dinner at one
of the candle-lit restaurants along Jimbaran beach's sweeping arc
of shoreline on Saturday night. Five of them didn't make it out
alive.

As news of the shocking suicide attacks at Jimbaran and Kuta
spread to the Indonesian capital, Sutisna flew down before dawn
the next day with his wife and Gunawan's younger sister,
determined to find what had happened to him.

"I arrived here (at the hospital) at around six and I did not
see Hendrik's name on the list of victims, dead or injured,"
Sutisna said.

With a heavy heart he went to the morgue attached to the
Sanglah hospital but to his relief could also not find his 24-
year-old nephew there.

"Then I checked each and every room to look for my nephew, so
that I could be certain whether he is still alive, or dead," he
said.

Two hours later, Sutisna finally found him in the intensive
care unit, Gunawan was in a comma and only identified as "Mr. X."

Many of those injured in the blasts had ballbearings, shrapnel
and other debris driven deep into their bodies. In Gunawan's case
they had penetrated his skull. But Sutisna said despite that
there were some encouraging signs.

"We were a bit pleased because he can now move his feet. We
want to be able to communicate with him, but for the time being
we cannot. We can only watch him," he said.

Gunawan's parents and girlfriend were expected to join the
vigil, Sutisna said, as he and his wife and niece waited
anxiously in a hallway just outside the ICU.

"We will stay here the entire evening. What if he wakes up and
needs us?" he said.

Seventeen of Gunawan's colleagues, many of them injured, were
flown back to Jakarta but three others were in such a serious
condition that they could not be moved.

One of the evacuees, Reynold, could not hide his excitement at
being told by a nurse that he and his friends should prepare
themselves for a flight home.

He violently turned his head to look at the nurse's face and
tried to sit up, but wincing in pain he was forced to give up.

A few minutes earlier, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had
visited his ward and spoke briefly to him, asking him where he
came from.

"I answered that I come from Jakarta, but whatever the
president said afterwards I could not hear. He spoke softly and
my ears are still painful," Reynold told AFP.

He grimaced in pain again as friends helped him change into a
T-shirt for the trip to Jakarta on board a free flight laid on by
the national carrier, Garuda.

The Sanglah hospital, which was overwhelmed by the 202 dead
and many more injured in the 2002 bombings, has benefited from
generous aid donations that have seen improvements including a
new burns unit.

Although their response to the latest disaster has generally
been applauded, there were complaints and concerns Monday from
the relatives and friends of those still languishing there.

Rudy Darwin, whose 27-year-old sister Ifen Sani was among
Hendrik's group of Jakarta colleagues and suffered shrapnel
wounds to her hand and leg, said he was anxious to take her home.

"The facilities here are not enough, they should have
increased the equipment after the 2002 bomb blasts, but sadly it
has not changed much," he told AFP.

"My family are worried, we will check with the doctor if it is
safe to send her to Jakarta."