Medical scramble to treat victims

The first seriously injured victims of the Bali blast were expected to land in Darwin late last night, after a day in which Australian authorities scrambled to get medical teams to the island.

The first of four Hercules aircraft, each carrying a medical team of seven and fitted out with stretchers, was expected in Darwin at about midnight with about 30 burns patients aboard.

The plane was due to land at Denpasar around 8pm, where it would unload medical supplies and assess and stabilise seriously injured Australians before flying to Darwin.

Emergency staff at the Royal Darwin Hospital last night were told to expect the first casualties after 11pm, central time.

The first Hercules left Richmond Air Force base west of Sydney at about 10am, with a medical team aboard. It landed in Darwin about six hours later and picked up a surgeon, an anaesthetist, blood and plasma. It also

A second Hercules, which had been hurriedly fitted out for medical evacuation, was due in Bali around midnight.

Last night the Department of Defence said another two aircraft would be sent overnight.

A separate RAAF flight, carrying 10 Australian federal Police and ASIO officers, left Canberra at 6.30pm for Bali to investigate the apparent terrorist attack.

The medical situation in Bali was reported to be desperate. Treatable patients were dying because of a lack of blood supplies, medical equipment and staff, sources said.

Although early reports gave at least 40 Australians injured, 15 of them seriously, diplomatic sources later spoke of 113 Australians in Bali hospitals.

But where the injured were in Bali's chaotic hospital system, how they could be taken to the airport for evacuation, and where they might ultimately be treated was uncertain last night.

Apart from the military response, several other teams of medical specialists from Australia were expected to land in Bali overnight or early today.

The South Australian Government has sent two critical care teams from Royal Adelaide Hospital, each comprising seven doctors and nurses.

Other medical staff were being ferried to Bali by special Qantas flights. A spokesman said five Qantas medical personnel - two doctors and three nurses - as well as an unknown number of medical volunteers would arrive early today.

The NSW Government also contributed medical staff and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter service sent two doctors and a paramedic to Bali.

Apart from the inadequacy of medical services on the ground in Bali, authorities were worried about the capacity of medical services in Darwin to cope with large numbers of injured.

Darwin Hospital had just six available intensive care beds, although five operating theatres could be called into service. The hospital cancelled all elective surgery last night.

Other victims of the bombing could be sent to the Darwin private hospital, although the availability of beds was uncertain last night.

Medical authorities were particularly worried that many of the injured had burns.

The intensive requirements of a large number of serious burns victims would almost certainly mean that patients would have to be transferred to other hospitals.

But help was on its way from the Royal Adelaide Hospital, which had put together a team of burns specialists to send to Darwin.

Update

Last injured Aussies leave Bali 14oct02

NEARLY all the Australians injured in the Bali bomb blasts have been evacuated from the island's hospitals, Australia's Deputy Ambassador to Indonesia has said.

Neil Mules said an RAAF Hercules aircraft was on the ground in Bali to take the last of the injured Australians back home.

At least 13 Australians were among the more than 180 people killed when bomb blasts ripped through a bar and nightclub in the Kuta Beach area on Saturday night.

Mr Mules said little information was available about the identities of those killed.

The injured Australians were now on their way home, he said.

"We have now evacuated from the hospitals here now probably all of the Australians who were in hospital," he told Channel 9's Today show.

"We have an RAAF Hercules on the ground in Bali which I think will load up with the remaining Australian serious injuries and there should be very few or no Australians in hospital here."

CareFlight spokesman Ian Badham said 17 Australian patients had arrived in Sydney on a Qantas flight this morning.

About half of the patients had burns, ranging from superficial to serious, while one woman had a fractured skull, Mr Badham said.

The others had cuts and bruises.

Mr Badham said the injured had been accompanied on the flight by a CareFlight trauma doctor and paramedic who had stabilised patients for the flight home.

A fleet of NSW ambulances was waiting at the airport to ferry the injured to several Sydney hospitals, including the specialist burns unit at Concord Hospital.

Injured New Zealanders and Canadians also were being evacuated from Bali with the help of the Australian embassy, Mr Mules said.

Supplies are also being flown in to Bali hospitals still struggling with the injured.

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