RAAF doctor’s horrifying mercy mission to aid Bali bomb victims

Twenty years on, RAAF squadron leader Steven Cook recalls being greeted at Denpasar with scenes of panic and utter chaos.

Anaesthetist and RAAF veteran, Steven Cook co-ordinated the first evacuation from Denpasar Airport the day after the Bali bombings.

When RAAF squadron leader Steve Cook and his medical team scrambled from Sydney’s Richmond Airbase on a rescue mission to Bali they thought they were responding to a minor gas cylinder explosion.

But when they touched down at Denpasar Airport they were greeted with scenes of panic and utter chaos.

Utes packed with the wounded and dying were waiting on the tarmac.

Dr Cook, a resuscitation specialist, was confronted with the horrifying results of the two bombs detonated at the Sari Club and Paddy’s Bar in Kuta, an experience that would go on to shape his own life as well as the lives of those he saved.

“When we landed 16 hours after the bombs detonated we expected everyone to be packaged and triaged ready for us to evacuate as soon as possible. But instead it was complete pandemonium,” said Dr Cook, who was forced to set up a makeshift field hospital to cope with the number of patients pouring into the airport.

A survivor of the attack arrived at Royal Darwin Hospital minutes after the first RAAF medical evacuation lands.

Operation Bali Assist — the name given to the RAAF’s response to the terror attack that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians — was hastily conceived as a standard “aeromedical retrieval” operation, with no more than a dozen available medical personnel.

But as the severity and number of injuries became clearer, the operation quickly turned into a large-scale evacuation mission, involving five Hercules C-130s and dozens of evacuees, many of whom had suffered major burns, amputations and severe fractures.

Steven Cook at Richmond Airbase in the Hercules hangar, back in 2005

“One of the first people we received was a young man who arrived seated in the back of a utility vehicle. He had at least 60 per cent burns and his mate — who was Balinese — was just pouring water over him in the back of the ute.”

“It was an unbelievable thing to see because in Australia he would’ve been taken straight to ICU, but there he was with his mate in the back of a ute, looking barely human.”

“That was the moment I understood this was beyond anything we’d expected. We were evacuating people that we had no idea what nationality they were.”

Less than 24 hours later, the RAAF response was bolstered by the arrival of additional medical equipment and personnel from Sydney and Darwin.

Shortly after, the AFP had also launched Operation Alliance with dozens of agents joining their Indonesian counterparts to pursue the bombers.

Dr Cook, 49, said the events of October 2002 have been the hardest to remember after a distinguished career serving in Iraq and East Timor.

Steven Cook shaking hands with then Prime Minister John Howard.

“For a long time afterwards I was concerned about whether we did a good enough job. We had a young woman who died at Denpasar airport, and we had another man die on the first flight back that I was on.”

“But I think we did the best we could, and 20 years on I’m proud of that.”

Dr Cook, who works at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, retrained as an anaesthetist after retiring from the RAAF.

“Looking back I went into this because of those experiences in Bali. I want to help people who experience that pain because I have seen the worst of it.”