Bali bombings 2002: Theatre nurse Frances Hearne recalls working at Royal Darwin Hospital

Twenty years may have passed but Royal Darwin Hospital theatre nurse France Hearne still remembers the tragedies and triumphs of the Bali bombings aftermath like it was yesterday.

Frances Hearne starts to well up when she speaks about the Bali bombings victim she’ll never forget.

“The first person we got (through to recovery) was British and he was an engineer,” the Royal Darwin Hospital theatre nurse said.

“He was a young fella of about 30 and he lost his arm.

“His wallet and phone had come through with him, and I could see all these heartbreaking messages asking where he was and if he had survived.”

“He’s one that I’d really like to know what happened to him,” she said.

Royal Darwin Hospital theatre nurse Frances Hearne assisted in Bali bombing victim surgeries. Picture: Floss Adams.

The man was one of at least 60 patients transported to Darwin following two explosions at nightclubs in Bali on October 12, 2022.

A tragic 202 people died and another 209 injured in the blasts at the tourist destination.

Ms Hearne is celebrating her 40th year in the job this year.

She said nothing has ever matched the scenes she witnessed when the victims came to Darwin

“There was a lot of activity around behind the scenes moving people to make room for patients coming in,” she said.

“I remember people who were working in theatre not knowing what was going to be required.”

She said because of the nature of RDH’s role, there were people coming into the hospital that would be flown to other hospitals before coming through to her in recovery.

The horrific burns, injuries and their treatments that came through as she worked in the recovery ward remain fresh in her mind.

Dr Didier Palmer, Leanne Van Oosterwijck, Maureen Hill, Frances Hearne and Jillian Edgar are still staff at the Royal Darwin Hospital – two decades on from the Bali bombings. Picture: Floss Adams.

“There was a lot of slashing of these swollen limbs to allow the fluids to flow through,” she recalled.

“All these really severe brutal-type suturing repair jobs because what Bali was struck with at the time.

“Young people that were 27 looked like they were 45 to 50 because they were so swollen.”

But something else that sticks with her is how everyone rallied together during the chaos.

“It was a real sense of teamwork among the surgeons,” she said.

“And other surgeons who weren’t required would go to the wards and make sure people were hydrated and help with pain relief which wasn’t what they normally did but they went out of their way to help.

“And people came in on days off just to help and be available.

“It was a very community-focused thing.”

Teamwork and the ability to adapt and evolve were the main silver linings that Ms Hearne takes away from the terrible tragedy.

She said she believed the hospital became better prepared for dealing with disasters in the aftermath, including the second lot of bombings in 2005.

“As bad as Bali or any trauma is, there’s always a positive outcome and things improve as a result of it,” she said.

But the positives don’t always outweigh the negatives, and she is still surprised at how hard it hits her emotionally to look back on the experience, even 20 years later.

“Every time you go to talk about it it’s still very much there,” she said.

“You carry on but every time you go to speak about it still hits home.”

“You never forget it.”

Originally published as Bali bombings 2002: Theatre nurse Frances Hearne recalls working at Royal Darwin Hospital