TRAUMATIZED QUAKE SURVIVOR TIRED OF MEDIA EXPOSURE

Padang, Oct 11 (ANTARA) - Ramlan (18), a traumatized survivor of a 7.6-magnitude earthquake which devastated West Sumatra last 30 September, is tired of too much media exposure.

"Sorry, he does not want to be interviewed about the earthquake. He is tired of repeatedly telling the same story," Nur, a Yos Sudarso Hospital staff member, said here on Sunday.

He said that almost every day the media interviewed him in the hospital's emergency tent.

"He might not mind of a picture taking," she said.

Nur said that besides the mass media, many parties and agencies also came to the hospital and gave him assistance. They also asked about his experience in facing nearly death in the aftermath of the powerful earthquake.
Ramlan, hacked off his own leg using a blunt hoe and then a saw after he became trapped in rubble following the Indonesian earthquake.

The construction worker was trapped when a concrete girder crushed his right leg up to the shin. Fearing aftershocks, he decided his only way to escape was by cutting off his trapped leg by using a hoe.

When ANTARA visited him who was still lying in an emergency tent's bed at Yos Sudarso hospital on Sunday, he seemed to be recovering.

He was accompanied by one of his relatives and feeling relaxed while holding a tabloid in his hands. He, however, did not say a word and just smiled.