Jakarta blast child may be paralyzed - doctors
Jakarta blast child may be paralyzed - doctors
Reuters
Singapore
A 5-year-old Australian girl, fighting for her life after
suffering critical injuries in a bomb blast in Indonesia, could
be permanently paralyzed on her right side when she emerges from
sedation on Monday, doctors said.
Elisabeth Manuela Banbin Musu, known in the media as "Manny",
sustained brain damage from shrapnel that penetrated her skull
when a car bomb exploded outside the Australian embassy in
Jakarta, killing nine people including her Indonesian mother.
As doctors operate to remove a shard of metal from the left
side of her brain, the young girl has become a symbol of the
human suffering inflicted by Thursday's blast, which authorities
link to a militant group with ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.
"Obviously the worst scenario would be complete paralysis of
the right side," Ng Puay Yong, a consultant neurosurgeon at Mount
Elizabeth Hospital, told reporters on Sunday.
Manny was among 182 people wounded when the bomb went off
while she was approaching the Australian embassy with her
27-year-old mother to pick up a passport.
Initially feared killed in the blast, she underwent
preliminary surgery in Jakarta to remove shrapnel from her
abdomen, before being air-lifted on Friday to Singapore where she
also may find herself at the center of a custody dispute.
Media reports said Manny's biological father, Australian
policeman Dave Norman, flew to Singapore from Sydney to join his
daughter while her stepfather, Manuel Musu of Italy, arrived on
Sunday hours after his dead wife's funeral in Jakarta.
Singapore's Straits Times newspaper reported on Monday that
Musu's father, Enrico Musu, 50, fueled talk of a custody battle
when he told local media through a translator: "Of course Manny
is Italian...because she has been living with an Italian family
and she grew up in an Italian family."
Doctors have removed pieces of metal from her head, stomach
and limbs but say many more are still stuck inside her body.
It was unclear whether the child, who arrived in a semi-
conscious state and has been sedated, was aware that her mother
had died. She is expected to emerge from sedation on Monday when
doctors will get an indication of her condition.
Police suspect militant network Jamaah Islamiyah carried out
the attack in the capital of the world's most populous Muslim
country. Jamaah Islamiyah is believed by the police to be the
regional arm of al-Qaeda.