But expected to make a full recovery

Hello fans:

Jason McCartney remains in Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital in a critical condition as he fights injuries suffered in the Bali bombings, but he, his family and friends are certain he will recover in time for his December wedding to go ahead.
The latest prognosis suggests McCartney may be discharged from hospital within six weeks.
McCartney, 28, who is the most seriously injured of about 70 AFL players who were on the island at the time of the bombings, has burns to more than 50 per cent of his body, including on his arms, legs, back and hands. He also suffers a shrapnel wound. He is now resting under reasonably heavy sedation in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
“We normally do not comment directly on any of our patients, but we expect that they will be leaving the hospital, all of them, within six weeks,” the hospital’s director of emergency treatment, Dr. Thomas Kossman told the ABC Television’s Stateline current affairs program on Friday.
Dr. Kossman said that as promising as the signs were, each of the Bali burns victims would need to be monitored closely and carefully.
McCartney’s manager Paul Connors said he was sure his client would be at the altar on December 14. Connors said McCartney, who has been surrounded by his family, fiancee Nerissa Van Der Heyden and her mother Jan, had been on a respirator since Wednesday. He said McCartney is very positive and brave, according to Nerissa.
Former Roos coach Denis Pagan said McCartney’s renowned courage and fighting spirit would help him overcome his ordeal.
McCartney’s father Ian said his 28-year-old son, suffering burns to 50 per cent of his body from the Bali bomb blast, was determined to press ahead with the wedding.
Former Roos teammate Wayne Carey, who flew in from Adelaide last Thursday, passed on his best wishes for McCartney’s recovery.
The North Melbourne defender’s condition was elevated from serious to critical after he deteriorated last Wednesday night, an Alfred spokeswoman said. However, radio 3AW reported on Thursday morning that doctors told McCartney would make a full recovery and return to football.
McCartney was among seven people carried on an Royal Australian Air Force Hercules which landed at Essendon Airport last Tuesday morning. McCartney, who was conscious, was taken by helicopter to the Alfred for emergency skin graft surgery before being admitted to intensive care. Two other men and a woman, all with burns, were also taken to the Alfred.
McCartney and teammate Mick Martyn had been in Bali only two days after the Kangaroos’ end-of-season trip in New Orleans. The pair had been drinking in Paddy’s bar across the road from the Sari nightclub when the car bomb exploded.
McCartney and Martyn reportedly went back to their hotel before realising their injuries required treatment. The family from Nhill in western Victoria heard about the blast within hours.
Ian McCartney said he could recognise his son straight away when he saw him in Royal Darwin Hospital on Monday afternoon because his injuries were not probably cleaned. He also said his son was supposed to be on the first flight out of Bali but he gave up his seat twice for someone who he thought was a lot worse than he was.
McCartney’s selfless act earned praise in Federal Parliament. “(He)... just to show the character of the circumstances, gave up a seat on an earlier plane for someone who he considered more deserving of it,” said Federal Opposition Leader Simon Crean, the club’s No.1 ticket holder. “I think that this demonstrates in these times of great crisis how we pull together.”
Ian flew to Darwin with Nerissa and McCartney’s brother Brendon on Monday morning, arriving about two hours before Jason. The family returned on a commercial flight on Tuesday and arrived at the hospital courtesy by close friend Corey McKernan.
Kangaroos chief executive Geoff Walsh said Martyn, who returned to Melbourne the day after, had suffered only minor burns to the back of his scalp, bruises and cuts, and was now resting at home.
Walsh said in a statement that McCartney’s change of condition was not unexpected, and his breathing problems were “a normal reaction to burns of this nature, and that that has been behind his upgrading from serious to critical, as he now requires more personalised nursing care.
“At this stage we believe Jason is still expected to be in Intensive Care for a couple of days before being moved to the Burns Unit at The Alfred. Our medical department will maintain their contact with the hospital and keep the club up-to-date on any changes.”
The McCartney family and Nerissa have sent an open letter of thanks to Victorians.
Nerissa took time out from her bedside vigil to write a letter with her future in-laws to thank well-wishers, and to make public a photo of the couple before the tragedy.
“We are overwhelmed and very grateful for all the well wishes we have received,” the letter says.
“The flowers, faxes, cards, telephone messages and letters have been a huge support to all of us.
“It has maintained the positive thoughts we have for Jason’s speedy recovery in this extremely difficult time.
“Jason is a true fighter. He is making progress every day. Thank you very much. Please keep your positive thoughts with Jason.”
The letter is signed by Nerissa, McCartney’s parents, his brothers, Brenden and Steven, and Brenden’s wife Ange.
Nerissa and her fiancee have been receiving letters all week from the children of St Joseph’s Primary School in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn, where she is the grade three teacher.
*Well-wishers can fax messages to the McCartney family, or any other patient from the Bali tragedy, via the Alfred on +613 9276 2928 or send an e-card at www.alfred.org.au
In all, five men and four women were flown from Darwin to Melbourne on Tuesday. Two women from the Hercules were admitted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and a man to St Vincent's Hospital for plastic surgery. All three were stable.
Ten people are being treated in Melbourne hospitals. Of the six at the Alfred, two were in a critical condition, including McCartney, and a Canadian in his 50s. Jodie Cearns, 35, stepdaughter of Olympic gold medallist Glynis Nunn-Cearns, who lost one eye and one leg and was also in the same flight, died on Tuesday (October 22).
*It was also revealed that McCartney’s heroics saved the lives of two Melbourne sisters in the moments after explosions.
Kay Woodgate, mother of Leanne and Samantha Woodgate, has publicly thanked McCartney, saying she owed her daughters’ survival to the player, who selflessly defied the flames and searing heat of Paddy’s bar. “We owe the girls’ lives to Jason. They’re grateful. Anything we can do, we will,” Mrs Woodgate told the Melbourne Herald Sun.
The sisters, McCartney and Martyn had shared a drink after another day relaxing in the Balinese sun. In the chaos that followed the deadly blast, McCartney helped lead Leanne and Samantha through the extreme heat and destruction caused by the explosion.
Mrs Woodgate said she had talked with McCartney and Martyn’s former teammate and Carlton ruckman Corey McKernan. She asked McKernan to thank McCartney and give her love and thoughts to his family.
Leanne knows McKernan well through her role as a masseur at Carlton.
Leanne, 26, and Samantha, 28, are in the Royal Adelaide Hospital where they are recovering from extensive burns and undergoing skin grafts. They also thanked McCartney and Martyn for helping save their lives in the Bali inferno.
Samantha said the courageous actions of McCartney had been amazing. “He’s got his own life there and he covered us,” Samantha told Channel Nine.
*Kangaroos football manager Tim Harrington said McCartney’s teammates and their partners will receive counselling this week. Harrington said the bombing was a draining process for McCartney’s family, his friends and his club. He said hospital staff would be able to provide the club all the information about what McCartney is going through and what he will be going through in the future.
The counselling would enable the club to plan for McCartney’s return.

Cats players undergo counselling
Shattered Geelong players had begun to deal with the Bali disaster by taking part in a group counselling session last week.
Acting Cats CEO Rob Threlfall said the club was trying to do everything it could to help its players come to terms with the tragedy and had offered group and individual counselling funded by the AFL Players Association, which the players and their families had accepted. Threlfall said coaching staff and club management would also be involved.
The first session, held on Wednesday, was attended by 60 people, players’ families and coach Mark Thompson among them.
Thompson conceded that the players were struggling to come to terms with the horrific scenes they had left behind. He said the players would remember these images for the rest of their lives.
But he and the players said they hoped the experience might ultimately have a positive effect on their lives, as far as their risk-taking and their decision-making.
Veteran Cat David Mensch, who flew straight from Bali to Murwillumbah near the New South Wales-Queensland state border to meet his wife and children, spoke about how the players spent Saturday night huddled in ruckman Steven King’s room, and ensured they remained together.
He spoke of the wounded people streaming into their hotel and how the Cats had torn bandages from hotel sheets to treat them. Even though young Southport Sharks footballer Jake Ryan, who walked into the hotel with shrapnel wounds to his stomach, credits the Geelong boys with saving his life, Mensch is haunted by the night and wonders whether the players did enough to help the injured.

Shattered Kingsley players return home
The attacks also have devastating results for two other Aussie Rules clubs.
Members of a Perth football club have returned home after exhausting the search for six missing teammates, who were inside the Sari club when the Bali attack happened.
The team members of the Kingsley amateur club arrived aboard the private jet of Channel Seven boss Kerry Stokes to a crowd of about 150 relatives and friends, gathered in a hangar at the Perth domestic airport last Wednesday.
Twenty members of the club went to Bali for an end of season trip, 11 arrived home to applause and tears.
One is being treated at Royal Perth Hospital, player Phil Britton is in Royal Adelaide Hospital with severe burns, but six are still missing.
The 11 team members who escaped unhurt were determined to stay in Bali until they identified the bodies of their missing team mates. They found the body of Corey Paltridge in a makeshift morgue in Bali on Tuesday, then decided to return home after realising nothing more could be done. They spent the rest of the day cleaning up their mates’ room and gathering their belongings.
Corey’s father Kevin thanked them for locating his son, saying the action saved him the heartbreak of having to travel to Bali himself. However he says he feels for the families of the other missing players. “I’m sorry for them at the moment, they’ve got nothing coming home and that’s what I really wanted. I need to have something coming home.
“They unfortunately haven’t got that at the moment, the boys tried their hardest and I’m forever going to be grateful for what they did for me.”
A planned 21st birthday party for Corey Paltridge would go ahead despite his death.
Corey, a self-employed glazier, lived with his parents in Perth’s northern suburbs but a bank confirmed his own home loan just last week.
Club chairman of selectors Laurie Kerr was flown to Darwin for treatment. He has 17 stitches in his head and superficial to second degree burns to about 20 per cent of his body.
Kerr, 44, said he made his first end-of-season football trip to Bali about 20 years ago, but he won’t be going again. He told of being pinned under red-hot debris and escaping only by following voices in the dark. “The whole lot came down,” he said. “There was a girl stuck in front of me. She couldn’t or wasn’t strong enough to get through the opening so I had to manoeuvre around to get her through an opening.
“Once we were out there it was pitch black with smoke everywhere and people yelling and screaming. The only thing we could do was follow the voices and that’s what we did. I was thinking of just surviving.”
Kingsley players and their families and friends attended Channel Seven’s live appeal “Australians Unite” on Sunday before holding to a candlelight vigil at Kingsley Oval.

Sturt lose two favourite sons
Newly-crowned SANFL premiers Sturt was also hit hard in the attacks, losing a trainer and a reserve player.
Club trainer Bob Marshall, who was killed in the terrorist bombing, was found in an open-air morgue by his sons Jeff and David, who identified the body identified the 68-year-old by an amputated middle finger on his right hand and a watch he had bought with footballer Aaron Bishop from a street vendor the day before the attack.
Outside the morgue, Jeff and David said they felt great relief following their viewing of their father's body. However it would take a long time before they would be able to claim the body and fly it home for burial.
Marshall and 19 players were inside the Sari nightclub at Kuta Beach when a bomb tore through the venue. Reserves player Josh Deegan died in the blast (a memorial service for him was held in Adelaide on Saturday), and forward Julian Burton is recovering in the Royal Adelaide Hospital burns unit.
David said before his departure for Bali the support from Sturt has been overwhelming.
Bob Marshall had been a popular figure at Sturt since joining as a player in 1962. His 10-year playing career was followed by 30 years as a coaching assistant and trainer, during which the club experienced a 26-year drought between SANFL premierships.
The Sturt players, who arrived at Adelaide Airport on Monday, cried uncontrollably after they were told of Deegan’s death by club chief executive Graeme Dunstan.
Tim Weatherald, the winner of this year’s Magarey Medal as the league’s best and fairest player, cried as he hugged his family, his face dotted with cuts and grazes. Another player, Daniel Wicks, had his head wrapped in an amateurish, blood-stained bandage. Many of them limped.
Weatherald described later how he found himself alone after the blast and feared the others had been killed. “No one else was there, I thought I was the only one who had survived,” he said. “The explosion was so amazing, our clothes were ripped off us.”
Sturt players and their families met at the clubrooms in Adelaide the following night for trauma counselling after their harrowing ordeal in Bali.
Sturt president Steve Chapman expressed sympathies to the Deegan family on behalf of the shattered group. He said the club’s priority was to provide players with “whatever help we can”, which involved immediate medical attention for the players, many of them bandaged and having difficulties walking.

Armstrong counts his luck
Melbourne rookie Steven Armstrong believes he has been given a second chance at life.
18-year-old Armstrong, in his first season with the Demons, was 10m from the Sari Club walking with teammate Steven Febey and delisted rookie David Robbins when the first bomb exploded, showering him in glass. He was thrown up to 10m in the air across the road.
“I just quickly got straight to my feet and then the car bomb went off,” Armstrong said from his hospital bed. “The second blast blew me into a side street, on the side of Paddy’s (bar, where the first bomb exploded). That’s where I saw Robbo and we just grabbed each other. We just held each other against the wall waiting for things to settle down.”
Armstrong, who was hit by shrapnel and needed a skin graft on the back of his right knee, is recovering in Perth’s St John of God hospital. He hopes to be discharged in the next day or two.
Armstrong said he hoped to be back in Melbourne in about four weeks when he expected to be ready to start running again and getting his fitness levels up before joining the Demons for pre-season training. He said he couldn’t wait to go home.
Last week, Armstrong choked back tears as he returned home from Bali in a wheelchair.
His teammates originally thought he had been killed in the attack on the Sari Club, which they were about to enter. Miraculously he survived, but at a cost.
An emotional Armstrong broke down at his arrival at Melbourne Airport as he recalled the force of the blast that hurled him across the road. Despite his injuries, Armstrong managed to find teammate David Robbins and the pair struggled to hospital.
“I’m not sure how close it was to us,” Armstrong said. “All I remember is glass just coming down like a shower of rain... Then the next thing I know the cars to the left of us just blew up beside us, so yeah, we’re very lucky.”
It was about six hours before he was reunited with desperate teammate Steven Febey, who had spent hours searching hospital after hospital for his friends. Febey had became separated from Armstrong and Robbins, and best friend Mark Andrews, after the first blast. The four friends returned to Melbourne with Armstrong and Andrews in wheelchairs.
Melbourne players, who began counselling on Monday, described their nightmare flight home from Bali, during which they thought their two teammates were dead.
Robbins said they huddled under a moped bike “thinking the world was going to end”.
Craig Ellis was reflecting on his second brush with terrorism in 13 months. On September 11, 2001, Ellis was standing only 10 blocks away from the World Trade Center as it was attacked.
The 28-year-old flew from Denpasar to Singapore on Saturday, only hours before the explosion.
“You look forward to your holiday at the end of the year, and twice now I’ve had to ring Mum and Dad at home and say, ‘Look, I’m OK, I’m still alive.’ That’s pretty tough,” Ellis said from Kuala Lumpur.
Melbourne chief executive John Anderson, who resigned this week, said it was just incredible the players were able to get away at all. He said if the bomb had gone off the night before, the whole club would have been wiped out. Football manager Danny Corcoran said Armstrong would take time to heal, but was in no doubt for the Demons’ pre-season.

Brereton recalls meeting with Aussie victim
Dermott Brereton has recalled his chance meeting with Adelaide teenager Angela Golotta, who died in the blast.
Brereton, Hawthorn premiership player and media commentator, was in Bali on a regular surfing safari. He was just 400m away from the blast after deciding to head for the airport rather than have a quick drink at the Sari Club before he flew out.
Brereton said he was used to being stopped on the streets of Bali by young Aussies asking for photographs, “like walking down Glenferrie Road (the main thoroughfare in Hawthorn)”.
Brereton said he had been speaking regularly with close friends - former Hawthorn premiership player Chris Wittman and Mark Casey, younger brother of Richmond president Clinton Casey - who were with him at the time of the tragedy.
Two hours before the Sari Club explosion, Golotta met Brereton in the street. The photograph she posed for shows a beautiful, vibrant teenager enjoying a Saturday night on the town with her mother, her brother’s girlfriend Jasmine and Brereton. She was in party mode - on holiday and five days from her 20th birthday.
“I think I remember the shot,” Brereton said. “Not until you start realising who has passed away and actually start putting names to faces do you start to get a bit freaky about it.”
When Golotta’s family left her in the Sari Club, she promised she would return to the hotel in a taxi. They never saw her alive again. She was on the dance floor with Sturt player Josh Deegan when the bomb exploded.
The grieving Golotta family, their son Michael, 22, and his girlfriend Jasmin Bos, 21, arrived back in Adelaide last Friday morning, after struggling with red tape to get their daughter’s body home. The family had identified Angela on Monday and had supplied authorities with dental records to confirm her identity.
Her uncle Andrew Taylor stayed in Bali and successfully arranged for her return after an emotional meeting with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who made a rush trip to visit the bomb site and to hold a memorial service.
Golotta’s remains, in a coffin draped in the Australian flag, finally arrived in Adelaide last Saturday afternoon, the first Australian victim of the bombings to be flown home for burial.

In Brief
*A Perth teenager who lost at least one finger in the Bali bombing was given a boost as she recovered in hospital, with a visit by two of her idols from Fremantle.
Nadine Ramm, 16, was standing near the dance floor of the Sari Club when the bomb went off.
She was flown to Perth early last Monday morning aboard businessman Kerry Stokes’ jet and is recovering in Fremantle Hospital.
Nadine had travelled to Bali on holiday with several family members, including her 44-year-old mother Lee-Anne Boston and 13-year-old stepsister Megan Basioli, who are now in Royal Perth Hospital.
Nadine, who had previously met Dockers forwards Paul Medhurst and Justin Longmuir in Perth, had heard that Dockers players were in Bali. Believing they may have gone to the Sari Club, she asked her mother to take her there. But the footballers had not gone to the nightspot.
A Fremantle Hospital spokesman said that after the teenager arrived at the medical facility nurses found in her travel bag a Dockers scarf and a photograph of her with Medhurst and Longmuir, taken in Perth. They stuck the photo up near Nadine’s bed so she could see it.
The hospital then asked the players to visit Nadine, and she enjoyed a brief bedside meeting with them on Thursday.
*Richmond midfielder Brad Ottens had set off for Bali, defying government warnings.
Despite fresh terrorist threats against Australians, Ottens said he would proceed with his holiday with sister Shelley and six other friends. “We were obviously a little bit worried at first,” he said. “I don’t want to take away from those families that have lost someone.
“It’s pretty distressing to see what happened - hopefully we will be all right.”
Ottens, 22, said he had talked to Richmond about his holiday but the club had said it was ultimately his decision.

More than 180 people are feared dead in the two blasts. Of the Australian victims, 32 died at the scene or in Australian hospitals, with another 62 missing.Authorities expect they will have to rely on dental records, identity cards found on remains and DNA testing, making identification a slow process.
Bali was the favourite destination for players from Australian clubs of all football codes on their end-of-season trips. Apart from the clubs mentioned above, the Coogee Dolphins in Sydney and a rugby union club in Brisbane also lost players in the bombings.
My deepest sympathy to the victims’ families and friends.
See you soon.

Regards,