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Sri Lanka terror victim back in Melbourne with family, but facing more surgery

By Zach Hope and Rachel Eddie

The young Melbourne woman injured in the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka is now back home, but will have to undergo further surgery to treat her horrific wounds.

Chathudila Weerasinghe, 28, was having breakfast with her mother Vipuli in the Kingsbury hotel in Colombo when a suicide bomber attacked, leaving her with shrapnel wounds throughout her body, including a ball bearing in her eye, and fractures to her legs and hands.

She arrived home early Tuesday morning after nine days of treatment in Sri Lanka.

Her family has told The Age Ms Weerasinghe, a Melbourne Airport worker, was "doing well, given the circumstances" but that she still needed more surgeries.

Ms Weerasinghe's mother Vipuli only suffered minor injuries when the explosion tore through the hotel as part of co-ordinated attacks across the country that killed more than 250 people, including two Australians.

Her father Ranjith, 62, immediately flew to Colombo to be with his daughter and has barely left her side.

She spent the first several days in intensive care, but was moved to a regular ward on the Thursday evening after the attacks.

Ranjith Weerasinghe has been by his daughter's side in hospital since she was caught in the attack.

Ranjith Weerasinghe has been by his daughter's side in hospital since she was caught in the attack.

Ms Weerasinghe was on Tuesday flown home by Queensland not-for-profit LifeFlight thanks to her credit card insurance, and remains at a Melbourne hospital.

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"She's getting better, on the mend," her brother Nesith told The Age.

The Weerasinghe family has asked that photographs of Ms Weerasinghe not be used.

Ranjith told The Age in the days after the bombings there had been great support coming from Melbourne, both from the Sri Lankan and wider community.

Manik Suriaaratchi and her 10-year-old daughter Alexendria, also from Melbourne, were killed in a church blast in Negombo.

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Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/sri-lanka-terror-victim-back-in-melbourne-with-family-but-facing-more-surgery-20190503-p51jsh.html