Manny's amazing recovery

Manny's amazing recovery

Five-year-old girl Elisabeth Manuel Banbin Musu, known
affectionately as Manny, (above) smiles outside the critical care
unit at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital. Three weeks ago,
photographs of unconscious Manny bleeding from her wounds flashed
around the globe. On Saturday, the survivor of last month's bomb
blast outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta smiled for the
cameras. Manny, who beat the odds to survive her serious
injuries, can now sit upright in a wheelchair.

It was the first time since her recovery that Manny has been
photographed. She was initially shy, hiding her face under her
white embroidered cotton hat or behind her packet drink.

Manny's rapid recovery was a miracle, said her neurosurgeon Ng
Puay Yong, part of a team of five doctors who treated her. "When
she came here, she was almost dead. Both her pupils were not
reacting, which means that statistically, she had a less than 5
percent chance of making it," Wang said.

He credits Manny's recovery to three factors -- luck, her
"progressive" deterioration that gave the doctors time to fight
back, and the medical team's skill and commitment.

The doctors carried out two operations, one on Sept. 10 to
remove a blood clot and bomb fragments from her brain, abdomen
and limbs, and another on Sept. 20 to clean the wounds and remove
the stitches. Therapists also helped her regain her speech and
mobility.

Manny will leave for Italy with her Italian father, Manuel
Musu, on Monday after Australian man David Norman decided not to
fight for her custody, ending a month-long paternity tussle.

She was among 182 people injured in the blast that killed her
mother, Maria Eva Kumalawati, and nine other victims. -- Straits
Times Interactive on Sunday