Korean Bus Accident Victims Planning Futures

Thursday, 8 March 2007, 12:16 am
Press Release: Waikato District Health Board

Media Release

8 March 2007

Korean Bus Accident Victims Planning Futures

The four South Korean females seriously injured in a tourist bus crash south of Tokoroa last month are all making excellent progress with their rehabilitation after treatment at Waikato Hospital.

Curie Suk, 19, who had her right arm amputated after the February 10 crash, is the only one still in Waikato Hospital. She is in Ward Seven – the plastics and burns ward – and is expected to be discharged next week to Hilda Ross House, a hospital hotel owned and operated by Health Waikato.

Curie was told yesterday Waikato University had awarded her a $4500 scholarship to study English in Hamilton. She hopes to continue studying at Waikato University after she completes the course.

Her family father Professor Sang Kee Suk and mother Mi Ok Lim have decided to set up home in the Waikato to support their daughter through the rehabilitation process. Curie has been credited with saving her brother Cu Hong, 11, during the accident sacrificing her right arm to protect him from injury.

"The bus was shaking so much and my brother was going to fall so I protected him with my right arm, and the bus crashed and I got a very terrible injury," she said.

Prof Suk will return to Korea later this month where he is a professor in the computer science and engineering department at Seoul National University of Technology.

His wife, daughter and son will stay in Hamilton to help Curie settle in. The family are working with the local Korean society and interpreter Hye Won Lee to find accommodation and to get Cu Hong into a local school where he can also learn English.

Today, Curie praised Waikato Hospital staff for their kindness and thanked the Korean community and members of the public for their support.

“It gives us goosebumps thinking about how kind everyone has been,” she said.

Sisters Jung Min (Jackie) Han, 19, and Soo Min (Claire) Han, 13, are in Hilda Ross House and are expected to move to Auckland next week with their father Sinho Han, 48, also injured in the accident. They will have rehabilitation treatment in Auckland. Jackie had her right arm amputated and received head injuries, Claire sustained facial scarring and a head injury and Mr Han had neck and spinal injuries.

IT programmer Youn Hee Chang, 34, who also had her right arm amputated, returned to Korea last week for further treatment. She is at the prestigious Yunsei University Hospital in Seoul and has already started to learn to write for the first time with her left hand penning an email to Waikato Hospital to thank them for her treatment.

She said doctors at Yunsei had assured her the medical staff at Waikato showed “excellent” clinical skills and were full of praise for the treatment she got.

Waikato Hospital surgeon Chris Lewis said the bus victims had recovered well. Curie was likely to be fitted with an artificial limb in six months after skin grafting.

Surgeon Steve McChesney told Waikato Korean news magazine News & News that all four women were in danger after the accident.

“The patients’ arms, heads and other parts of their bodies bled so much that it was enough to put their lives in danger.”

He said Curie was the most serious and after the first surgery her life was still in serious danger. “Even after the scars heal the patients will still need to receive treatments even though they are discharged,” he said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

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