BOMB HAS TAKEN TEN YEARS OF MY LIFE ITS NOT TAKING ANY MORE
Bomb has taken ten years of my life; it's not taking any more
BY ROSETTA DONNELLY
r.donnelly@ulsterherald. com
Kate Kelly was shopping in Market Street, mere yards from the bomb, when it exploded. The 24-year-old had been in McElroy's looking for shoes with her friend Rachel Gilbraith.
As she lay amidst the carnage on the street, she did not realise what had happened and, because she could not walk, she was carried by a man to a waiting bus to be taken to the hospital.
Her mother Bernadette had been in Omagh earlier and had gone home before the bomb struck. Bernadette had lost her own mother just a week earlier and Kate had persuaded her to buy a dress in a local shop.
Later, as Bernadette and her husband Martin raced back to the town centre, they were very anxious because Kate was not answering her phone.
The frightened father began looking through the crowds of injured victims to find his daughter with the long curly hair. Eventually her parents found her and she kept telling them she was alright and she wanted to go home.
However, Kate was not alright and it transpired that she had a serious injury to her leg.
Kate was kept in hospital while consultant Dominic Pinto tried to find out exactly where the injury was. And it transpired it was in the thigh area. A week later, she was sent to the Ulster Hospital for specialist treatment for an infection which had set in.
"They were trying to save my leg and I ended up wearing a calliper, but I had ulcers."
Over the next two years, medical staff battled to save her leg but it the treatment did not work. In December 2001, Kate's leg was amputated from below the knee.
Kate says her family had been a tower of strength but in particularly her mother.
"She came to the hospital and waited during the six-hour ordeal; and she even had a little coffin to put the partial leg in."
Kate then began her physiotherapy treatment. Indeed, she was just starting her exercises when she heard about the September 11 bombs in New York. That brought a lot of her ordeal back to her.
"I had been delirious with joy at being able to try and walk and then I heard about the Twin Tower attacks," she says.
The setback was serious; she did not walk until 2006 - eight years after the Omagh bomb.
As the 10th anniversary approaches, Kate says she wants nothing to do with the commemoration ceremonies.
"I would love to be just able to get on with my life and not hear anything more about it," she says. "I can understand other people feel differently."
She says she has lost ten years of her life because of the Omagh bomb and she does not want to waste another ten being depressed about it. She has endured a maelstrom of emotions since the bomb; guilt that she had not died when others had; anger at the bombers; resentment when people tell her she should feel lucky that she is not more seriously injured.
"People say to me that they don't know how I am coping so well, but you don't have a choice, you have to get over it."
She said someone told her that when throw pebbles into a pond the ripple goes out from it.
"The bomb was just like that -my injuries affected every member of my family in different ways," she adds.
BY ROSETTA DONNELLY
r.donnelly@ulsterherald. com
Kate Kelly was shopping in Market Street, mere yards from the bomb, when it exploded. The 24-year-old had been in McElroy's looking for shoes with her friend Rachel Gilbraith.
As she lay amidst the carnage on the street, she did not realise what had happened and, because she could not walk, she was carried by a man to a waiting bus to be taken to the hospital.
Her mother Bernadette had been in Omagh earlier and had gone home before the bomb struck. Bernadette had lost her own mother just a week earlier and Kate had persuaded her to buy a dress in a local shop.
Later, as Bernadette and her husband Martin raced back to the town centre, they were very anxious because Kate was not answering her phone.
The frightened father began looking through the crowds of injured victims to find his daughter with the long curly hair. Eventually her parents found her and she kept telling them she was alright and she wanted to go home.
However, Kate was not alright and it transpired that she had a serious injury to her leg.
Kate was kept in hospital while consultant Dominic Pinto tried to find out exactly where the injury was. And it transpired it was in the thigh area. A week later, she was sent to the Ulster Hospital for specialist treatment for an infection which had set in.
"They were trying to save my leg and I ended up wearing a calliper, but I had ulcers."
Over the next two years, medical staff battled to save her leg but it the treatment did not work. In December 2001, Kate's leg was amputated from below the knee.
Kate says her family had been a tower of strength but in particularly her mother.
"She came to the hospital and waited during the six-hour ordeal; and she even had a little coffin to put the partial leg in."
Kate then began her physiotherapy treatment. Indeed, she was just starting her exercises when she heard about the September 11 bombs in New York. That brought a lot of her ordeal back to her.
"I had been delirious with joy at being able to try and walk and then I heard about the Twin Tower attacks," she says.
The setback was serious; she did not walk until 2006 - eight years after the Omagh bomb.
As the 10th anniversary approaches, Kate says she wants nothing to do with the commemoration ceremonies.
"I would love to be just able to get on with my life and not hear anything more about it," she says. "I can understand other people feel differently."
She says she has lost ten years of her life because of the Omagh bomb and she does not want to waste another ten being depressed about it. She has endured a maelstrom of emotions since the bomb; guilt that she had not died when others had; anger at the bombers; resentment when people tell her she should feel lucky that she is not more seriously injured.
"People say to me that they don't know how I am coping so well, but you don't have a choice, you have to get over it."
She said someone told her that when throw pebbles into a pond the ripple goes out from it.
"The bomb was just like that -my injuries affected every member of my family in different ways," she adds.
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH10An/33
Published Date: 14-Aug-08
Related Images
