Dr Mati Rahman remembers the horrific day of the Omagh bomb Picture: Ronan McGrade
THIS month marked the 18th anniversary of the Omagh bomb, a tragedy ingrained on the minds of so many people across this part of Ireland.
One man who was especially affected by the tragedy is Emergency Department consultant Mati Rahman from the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH), who witnessed the horror of August 15, 1997 first hand.
Speaking to the Herald as part of our regular ‘On the Frontline’ feature, Mr Rahman explained how the stellar work performed by the staff of the then Erne Hospital in the days that followed, and a visit from then Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam, helped in the fight to get the new state-of-the-art hospital we have today.
“Following the Omagh bombing we got 78 patients in half an hour,” recalled Dr Rahman, who explained the injured had been transferred to Belfast, Altnagelvin and the Erne. “They came by bus, by taxi, by ambulance, they all came.
“I was off duty that day and there was a locum consultant, but somehow he was missing. I was in shopping in town when the police saw me, and they knew me, so they stopped me and told me we were expecting so many patients. So I came, and didn’t go home for three days. In between the cases got a sandwich and coffee and that was my rest.”
Dr Rahman said the days that followed where very emotional, with “lots of blood and tears”, but there were happy moments too, such as when a young traumatised boy who wasn’t speaking was brought out of his shell after staff rang his hero, Barry McGuigan, and he came and spent an afternoon with him.
“You forget who comes from what side, what religion they are, where they’re from,” he said of the bomb victims. “They are simply human beings who went out that day to do weekend shopping and Spanish students on holidays. It was very sad.”
He added they had a special visitor that night: “On the first night we settled the patients in the department and they were ready to go from theatre from the next morning. Around 10.30 at night time Mo Mowlam arrived with a helicopter. Linda Saunderson was my sister in charge, and she wanted to meet us.”
Dr Rahman said the late Ms Mowlam was “tearful and emotional” and when she was leaving she said their hard work was appreciated and asked how she could help. Mr Rahman told her they needed a new A&E department.
“I showed her my old A&E department,” he continued, speaking from the modern and spacious SWAH ED department. “It was a single room with six curtains in between divided the cubicles, with a small theatre underneath.
“The waiting room was the size of this room [a single-person office], and children and normal people had to sit with drunk people. The children were watching drunk people abusing, vomiting, urinating, using wonderful language.”
So Dr Rahman asked Ms Mowlam for space: I told her if she gives me space, even in Hell, I will make it Heaven, I promise.”
He said Ms Mowlam gave him a playful slap and said she would.
“I met her three more times in various places and she reminded me – I will give you Hell, but you will give me Heaven.”
Dr Rahman, the only surgeon working that tragic day, explained other work had been going on regarding securing a new hospital at Enniskillen at that time, but said he felt that contribution had made a difference in where the hospital would be located.
To read more.. Subscribe to current edition
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere