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BRAVE BOYS CLING TO LIFE

BRAVE BOYS CLING TO LIFE
By CLARE GRANT

THREE children and seven adults were fighting for their lives last night in the wake of the bomb outrage.
Of the 28 people who died, police said 14 were women, three were girls, five men and four boys.
Two others could still not be identified.
Among the dead were young friends Samantha Macfarland, 17, and Lorraine Wilson, 15.
Other victims named locally were Ann McCombe, Brenda Logue, 17, Philomena Skelton, Libby Rushe and Adrian Gallagher.
The 10 victims clinging to life suffered terrible injuries and doctors fear they will not survive.
Julian Johnson, director of intensive care at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, said: "We are very worried. We cannot be certain that they will pull through."
A boy of nine was being operated on at the hospital unaware that his parents were also being treated for their injuries.
Patients
A hospital source said yesterday: "His arm has been mangled and it is looking touch and go. We don't know if he will make it."
A boy of 11 is on a life-support machine at the same hospital and a nine-year-old Spanish girl is also among the worst injured.
Her parents were making a desperate journey last night to be at her bedside.
A total of 23 people are being treated at the Belfast hospital.
Consultant Laurence Rocke said: "Only a minority who came here have modest injuries.
"The rest are extremely serious. All the patients we have received will be disfigured in some way."
The niece of injured Marie Sutton, 70, told how her aunt was shopping when she was caught up in the explosion.
Katriona Clarke, 32, said: "My aunt heard a shout. There was a searing heat and a huge bang. "She is traumatised and still in shock.
"She knows how lucky she is because she was standing next to a traffic warden who was killed.
Another survivor, Elaine O'Donnell, 26, was shopping for wedding shoes when she suffered multiple injuries to her right leg.
Devastated fiancé Mark O'Connor, who she was due to marry in three weeks, wept as he paced the hospital corridors.
Mark said: "I'm so grateful she's alive. I just can't take it in."


Further Information

Publisher: THE MIRROR

Ref: TM/003

Published Date: 17-Aug-98

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