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."