Two fathers of 5-year-old Jakarta blast victim keep bedside vigil
Two fathers of 5-year-old Jakarta blast victim keep bedside vigil
Ansley Ng Associated Press Singapore
A five-year-old girl critically wounded in the Australian Embassy bombing in Indonesia remained under heavy sedation Monday as her two fathers kept a bedside vigil, an embassy official said.
Elisabeth Manuela Banbina Musu was injured last week by the blast while heading for the embassy to pick up her new Australian passport after becoming a citizen on Sept. 1.
She had numerous pieces of shrapnel lodged in her abdomen and brain, and her Indonesian mother, Maria Eva Komalawati, 27, was among nine people killed by the bomb.
Since being airlifted to Singapore for medical treatment on Friday, Elisabeth has remained in critical but stable condition as doctors try to clean her wounds and evaluate the extent of her injuries.
Komalawati's Italian husband, Manuel Musu, and the girl's biological father, Australian police officer David Norman, are both keeping a constant vigil by her side, said Laura Siano, an administrative attache with the Italian Embassy in Singapore. Media reports of a custody battle brewing between the men were played down by Siano.
"They are together with her, they both care about her, that is the main thing," said Siano.
"They haven't been talking about anything else as far as I know."
Musu and Komalawati met in Bali in 1999 and married later that year when she was four months pregnant with Elisabeth, according to Elisabeth's Italian grandfather, Enrico Musu.
The girl was born in Jakarta but raised in Verona, Italy, and is an Italian citizen, Siano said. She is also an Australian citizen now.
Siano said the girl's Italian family plans to take her back to Italy once she recovers.
Australian Embassy officials declined to comment on whether Norman had requested custody of her.
Elisabeth has been unconscious or heavily sedated since the bombing and it was unclear Monday whether she has become aware that her mother was killed last week.
Early Monday, Elisabeth opened her eyes intermittently and started to regain consciousness but doctors quickly sedated her to keep her calm because she began to struggle with the respirator helping her breathe, said Ng Puay Yong, a consultant neurosurgeon at Mount Elizabeth hospital.
Ng told reporters Monday that it would be six months before doctors can assess the full extent of her injuries.
"She definitely has had some brain damage" as a result of shrapnel and a blood clot in her brain, Ng said. The injury is likely to cause some degree of paralysis on her right side, he said.
Doctors must also continue to clean shrapnel from her wounds, he added.
"She has been stable but we are worried about infection setting in," said Ng. "She is not out of the woods yet."
Ng said Elisabeth may be able to come off the respirator in a few days.