Above: Berwick Church of Christ members Gloria Hardy and Sally Meddings are humble to have been part of the miraculous recovery of Lombok orphan Ana Tosi.
By Ed Merrison
A HUMANITARIAN chain that began in a Berwick church has had a miraculous impact on the life of an Indonesian orphan.
A May presentation by Berwick Church of Christ member Gloria Hardy and seen by fellow member Sally Meddings set in motion a sequence of events that kick-started a 22-year-old Lombok woman’s recovery from a serious deformity which has hampered her since the age of five.
Narre Warren resident and veteran swimming champion Ms Hardy has engaged in Lombok aid work for seven years, teaching orphans to swim and working to meet the basic needs of a small mountain village.
In August last year, Ana Tosi showed up to a swimming session, and Ms Hardy was alerted to a handicap that was seriously holding back the young Indonesian.
When Ana was five, a serious burn from a kerosene stove melted her hand back onto her forearm, with her wrist twisted and fingers mangled almost beyond recognition.
Ms Hardy took it upon herself to help Ana, and took photographs to bring back to Australia, hoping to enlist aid.
In May, Ms Hardy reported back to the church on the various aid projects going on around Lombok.
It was at this meeting that Hampton Park plastic surgery practice manager Ms Meddings found herself perfectly placed to answer Ms Hardy’s call.
Not only did Ms Meddings work with a Dandenong plastic surgeon experienced in hand reconstruction, but the surgeon in question was due to head to Lombok on a June trip with plastic surgery humanitarian agency Interplast.
Despite the extraordinary coincidences, it would not be true to say Ana’s treatment came about without effort.
Without the required facilities in Lombok, Dandenong surgeon James Leong had to detour to Bali, where he undertook the five-hour procedure free of charge while funds from various groups within the church paid for Ana’s passage and that of a carer.
Ana’s hand was cut away from her arm, her wrist straightened and skin grafted onto her forearm, giving her movement and sensation she had not had since her horrific accident.
She will soon have to undergo a second operation of similar cost and complexity to further her recovery, towards which the Berwick Church of Christ is once again raising funds.
“(Ana’s) just over the moon and looking forward to the next one,” Ms Hardy said.
“She’s got 15 degrees of movement up and down and has feeling in her fingertips she’s never had before.”
Ms Meddings said an Australian in Ana’s position might have had the surgery before years of growth was allowed to complicate her condition.
“If Ana hadn’t had surgery her life would have been pretty bad. She wouldn’t have had use of her hand at all,” she said.
Ms Meddings was happy for Ana, but did not feel her own actions were heroic.
“I’m not so much satisfied for myself as grateful for the opportunity to be a link between (Ms Hardy and Mr Leong),” she said.
“I don’t feel my part was a big part at all.”
As for Ms Hardy, it is clear to her that what seems like an extraordinary case of good timing and community care is an example of God’s will at work.
“It’s not a coincidence – it’s a miracle, and to think we were able to operate on Ana for nothing, that’s another miracle.
“It seems this is what God had been preparing me for all along, specifically to help this girl,” she said.
