ABOVE: the ruins of the Sari club in Kuta, Bali, after the terrorist bombing on Saturday October 12. BELOW: The coffins of three deceased Australian citizens, killed in the attack, awaiting return to Australia. Photos provided by Lt-Col Stephen Curry

Not exactly a holiday

HUSBAND and wife Trent and Emily Mongan, both Army lieutenants, won a trip to Bali in a raffle and first learnt of the explosions on Sunday morning.

They immediately contacted three of Emily’s soldiers from 1CSSB, also in Bali, and brought them to their hotel.

“They were right in the centre of it and had been dragging dead bodies out of the place, so we ordered them to our hotel to rest and provide security for the other Australians there,” Trent said.

Trent and Emily visited the three bomb sites, the consulate and then Sanglah Hospital, where they began treating wounded and preparing for evacuation.

“There weren’t any doctors around at that stage and these people had been dropped on a bed and left there – if they were breathing, they weren’t treated. Only the most serious had been sent to surgery or intensive care.”

Other Australian medical personnel began arriving to assist and the Mongans began centralising patients in a single ward, close to what they considered the likely evacuation point.

“We ended up evacuating about 75 people – the doctors prioritised them and we started lining up the ambulances, prepping the patients and moving them out.”

Trent travelled with a badly burnt and comatose victim they had tagged Mr X, who he twice revived after Mr X’s heart stopped during the trip to the airport and who later died during the evacuation flight to Australia.

The initial Hercules was already on the ground when the first ambulances arrived and the AME team was setting up a triage centre in the airport fire station hangar.

“I said we didn’t need any more doctors at the hospital and we’d bring the patients to them – we could treat them better at the airport because of the supplies and expertise they had there.”

All the Australians were evacuated from Sanglah Hospital by about 5am, so Col Thompson sent Trent and the volunteer doctors to clear the other hospitals and clinics.

Trent said the effectiveness of the ADF response was a result of the training and professionalism of the personnel involved.

“The ADF trains people to think laterally in critical situations where some people’s views might become a bit narrow.

“You’ve got to think beyond ‘I have to treat this patient’ to ‘how do we get them out of here, who is going to help us, who do we have to talk to, when is it going to occur’.

“The proof is in the pudding – from the time the bomb went off to the time the last flight arrived in Darwin was 30 hours.”

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