by Rita A.Widiadana and Luh De Suriyanion 2012-10-12
It was a nightmarish time for I Nengah Kuning Atmadja, a surgeon at Sanglah Hospital, who on that Saturday evening of Oct. 12, 2002 was on night duty with a small number of staff in the hospital’s emergency room.
“The silence of the cold October night was suddenly broken when ambulances kept coming and going to drop off the bodies and the injured at the hospital’s emergency ward, and the hospital turned into a ‘panic room’,” Atmadja recalled.
With limited equipment, a shortage of medicines, and, more importantly, only a small team of six doctors and nurses, they treated more than 300 wounded people; many of them were severely burned.
“The hospital also received 180 bodies that night and we hardly had room to place them properly in our small morgue,” he remembered.
In just a few hours, local residents, the expatriate community and families of the victims rushed to Sanglah to check if any of their loved ones were among the victims.
Lanang Made Rudhiartha, the-then director of Sanglah Hospital, said at that time those were
the best services the hospital could offer to treat the injured. “That was the first time Sanglah Hospital received such a large number of patients in such a profound emergency,” Lanang said.
“That night, we worked very fast and efficiently to categorize patients according to their condition. We placed black flags for the dead, red flags for the seriously injured and yellow flags for patients who were not too seriously wounded,” At-madja said.
The team of doctors later contacted their colleagues from hospitals in Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung and even from Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan and Australia. Dozens of foreign doctors also joined the medical team.
A day after the bombing, Nyoman Semadi, former head of the hospital’s Intensive Surgery Care (ISC) unit, along with his staff and three Singaporean surgeons — Leslie B Kuek (microsurgery), Chan Siang Sui (surgeon) and Chew Khet Kuen — focused and dedicated their time to the work. The three doctors were flown over by private Parkway Group that runs the Mount Elizabeth and Gleneagles hospitals. Sanglah Hospital treated 635 patients, 136 of whom were evacuated to Singapore and Australia.
I Wayan Suardana was a student at Udayana University’s Technical School when he worked together with 50 other students, residents and even businessmen, as volunteers at Sanglah.
“There were so many individuals, companies, local and international organizations that were eager to donate various necessities — food, beverages, cash, mattresses, blankets, body bags, medicines, but no one organized the donations, so students took the initiative to do so,” Suardana said. The volunteers helped doctors, nurses, morgue staff, families and victims of the tragedy.
“The team of volunteers also worked with staff in the morgue to put dry ice in the hundreds of body bags every two hours. At first, we felt so scared, especially during the night, when there were fewer volunteers,” Suardana said.
Mardiana Ika, a Bali-based fashion designer now residing in Hong Kong, was one of the volunteers who encouraged the Kuta community to help the hospital with medicine and equipment.
A large number of local and expatriate volunteers dedicated their time to ease the burden of the victims and their families.
Suardana also said that numerous expatriates living in Ubud were ready to provide blood and other assistance.
“The tragedy united us so strongly — locals, expatriates, students and local residents, businessmen, as a solid community in Bali. This was the most valuable lesson for me at that time as a volunteer and as a student.” He also saw the kindness and sincerity of all the volunteers and the community, an experience that enriched him and the other students, many of whom have now become leaders, lecturers, businessmen and politicians.
No comments:
Post a Comment