Tsunami survivors suffer amputations

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Many tsunami victims have had to make an excruciatingly nasty decision; cut off a limb or die.

Never in the 15 years of his life had Suwardi thought of such a choice. Not until the doctor at the Banda Aceh military Kesdam Hospital confronted him recently, and explained that the teenager's left leg had deteriorated beyond treatment and was decaying rapidly after being broken during the tsunami.

There was nobody else for Suwardi to turn to and discuss the decision because his whole family -- parents and three siblings -- died in the tsunami that devastated their village, Lampase.

Suwardi himself was swept away by the flood and deposited about 1.5 kilometers from home.

After several days he was discovered by a volunteer, unconscious under a wrecked house wreckage and partially covered in mud with his leg broken. He was eventually taken to Kesdam Hospital.

As soon as he regained consciousness after a day in the hospital, he was faced with the amputation decision.

The student from SMPN 5 junior high school in Aceh said he did not see any other option.

"My leg had already begun to rot, the bone was shattered, and the doctor said that if I hadn't gotten rid of my leg, it would have cost my life. I had no choice, I just let them cut off my leg," Suwardi told The Jakarta Post on Monday at Malahayati Hospital here.

After he agreed that it needed to be amputated, doctors from Kesdam Hospital took him to an Australian military ship for the surgery and the Australian doctors did it.

Aside from the amputation, Suwardi said that the Australian doctors also had to do a procedure to remove the mud he had swallowed.

After the surgery, Suwardi was sent back to Kesdam Hospital before being transferred to Malahayati Hospital in Medan on Jan. 4.

"I'm all by myself here. I have no family left, except for an uncle. His name is Syafrudin and he lives in Cane, Aceh Tenggara," he said, adding that his uncle was to arrive this week.

Despite losing his immediate family and his leg, Suwardi said he had not lost hope and or his will to live. He is eager to get back to school and pursue his dream of becoming a teacher.

"I'd like to go to school here in Medan, but that depends on my uncle. I'm still afraid to go back to Banda Aceh," he said.

Sharing a similar fate is Husni, 28, whose leg was also broken and had to be amputated.

He said it was broken as he was clinging to a tree and something hit the leg as the water rushed by taking with it a lot of debris. in a tree.

"When the water subsided, I couldn't move, let alone walk. I had to crawl about 500 meters to the main road until somebody spotted me and took me to Kesdam Hospital," said Husni, a resident of Pekan Bada, Aceh Besar, who lost his wife and an 18- month-old child.

He had his leg amputated on Jan. 1 at Kesdam before being transferred to Pirngadi Hospital in Medan four days later.

Husni said that his other leg was still very painful.

"I haven't slept in the past few days. My leg is throbbing with pain, it really hurts a lot. I hope to get well soon," said Husni, who hopes he will someday be able to walk again with a prosthetic.

Pirngadi Hospital currently has five Acehnese amputees recuperating here, all of whom were victims of the tsunami.

Aside from Husni, there was 40-year-old T. Abdan Jalil whose leg was crushed by a coconut tree while he was trying to save his mother, Cut Maniak, 65, in their village of Malinge on Nasi Island.

Cut Maniak was survived without serious injury.

"My leg was amputated by a bule in Aceh before I was brought here. I accept my fate," said Jalil, using the derogatory term for the foreign caucasian doctor that treated him.