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.