ALL,
Sorry about any inconvenience caused by my forgetting that the forum
doesn't accept attachments but in the circumstances no matter what it
was important to make the effort.
Regards
Bob Harrison.
-----Original Message-----
From: Miles McCallum [mailto:milesm@avnet.co.uk]
Subject: Re: Europa-List: FW: YOUNG TSUNAMI VICTIM - Kennt jemand diesen
Jungen? (fwd)
Bob - can't post on the matronics list - perhaps you could...
Miles McCallum.
To all who received the email with picture of blonde child, it seems
that he has been reunited with
his family. The article below is an associated press article:
Posted on Tue, Dec. 28, 2004
Swedish 2-year-old reunited with uncle
By ALISA TANG
Associated Press
PHUKET, Thailand - A 2-year-old boy who was found dazed and alone
on a roadside in the
wasteland of a tsunami-devastated Thai resort was reunited Tuesday with
his uncle, who spotted the
child's picture on the Internet.
The boy, identified by his uncle as Hannes Bergstroem, was found
Sunday night on a road in
Phang Nga province near the beach resort of Khao Lak, about 60 miles
---From the island of Phuket. He
was taken to Phuket International Hospital where the staff posted
pictures of the blond-haired boy
with red spots all over his face from mosquito bites on its Web site on
Monday. They also published
his photo in a local newspaper.
The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported the boy's mother and
grandmother were missing. His
father and grandfather were believed to be in another hospital in
Thailand, but their exact location
and condition were not immediately known.
A man, who identified himself only as Jim, told the Associated
Press on Tuesday in a telephone
interview that he found his nephew after he saw his picture on the Web.
"When I saw Hannes on the Internet, I booked an air ticket to come
here in less than five
hours," said Jim, who rushed to the Phuket hospital on Tuesday from
Chonburi province in Thailand,
hours away from Phuket, where he was staying. "This is a miracle, the
biggest thing that could
happen."
Hospital staff said the boy had been babbling but workers did not
know what language he was
speaking They thought he might be Swedish because he was enthusiastic
when a man spoke Swedish to
him.
"He looked bleak when he arrived at the hospital on Sunday night
with some surface wounds on
his face and body," said Vilad Mumbansao, a hospital staff member.
After the hospital published pictures of the boy, dozens of
parents desperate to find missing
children turned up, hoping he was theirs. But all left disappointed
except the uncle.
The uncle said five of his family members from Goteborg in
southwest Sweden were on a
monthlong vacation in Thailand when the giant waves struck. The family
had spent their last few days
in Khao Lak, where surging waves swept away hundreds of tourists and
trapped people inside flooded
buildings.
Tens of thousands of people were killed in 11 countries from Asia
to Africa after Sunday's
massive earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra sent 500 mph
waves surging across the Indian
Ocean and Bay of Bengal. More than 1,500 were killed in Thailand, among
them more than 700 tourists
vacationing at resorts on Phuket island and elsewhere.
It is feared that many children may have been orphaned by the
disaster.
The Swedish Gulbstrand family found 7-year-old Swede Karl Nilsson
- called by the nickname
Kalle - sitting along in a Buddhist temple on Phuket on Monday. His
parents and two brothers were
lost. The Gulbstrands took him in and have been caring for him.
"All night, when he heard the noise of a truck or car, Kalle woke
up and asked me, `Is it
another wave coming?'" said Marie Gulbstrand, a doctor.
Gulbstrand, from Stockholm, said her family was in the temple -
temporarily converted into a
shelter - when she heard cries. Her son ran to her calling "Mammy,
mammy, there is a little Swedish
boy. Come see him."
Kalle, wearing only underwear, had a broken collar bone, bruises
and cuts. He screamed as a
medical worker stitched his torn feet without anesthetic.
Gulbstrand said Kalle - pale, with dark half-rings under his eyes
- was clearly in shock. That
night the doctor slept alongside him, and on Tuesday he told her his
story.
He'd been in a hotel room Sunday morning with his brothers,
5-year-old Olof and Vilgot, 3. His
parents, Thomas and Asa, of Lulea, Sweden, were outside.
Suddenly water gushed into the room.
"He told me, `I was under the water but somehow I could breathe. I
was just closing my eyes
and moving with the waves. Then, suddenly the flood ended and I was in
another city.," Gulbstrand
said.
He was actually still in the same place, only disoriented and
battered beyond recognition by
the tsunami.
Wandering alone, he was eventually helped by some Thai people and
a Swedish couple who took
him to a Buddhist temple, one of many serving as emergency shelters.
On Tuesday night, Kalle was watching cartoons in a room at the
Phuket Island Pavilion hotel,
where he was staying with the Gulbstrands and some of their friends.
In other rooms, other parents hoped their missing children would
somehow return to them from
the deadly waters.
Hospital officials in Phuket said Tuesday they also were looking
for Norbert and Edeltraud
Michl, parents of a 10-year-old German girl, Sophia Michl, who they were
caring for. She has cuts
and bruises on her face.
On the Web:
Phuket International Hospital, children's photo:
http://www.phuket-inter-hospital.co.th/boy.htm
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