Father recalls devastating choice he was forced to make during Sri Lanka bombings
An American ex-pat and former Chase bank vice president has revealed the devastating moment he was forced to choose which of his two dying children to try and save during the Sri Lanka bombings on Easter Sunday.
Matthew Linsey, 61, was vacationing with two of his children in Sri Lanka when a coordinated attack unfolded at churches and high-end hotels throughout the country, leaving more than 300 victims dead and hundreds more wounded.
Linsey and his family were enjoying the breakfast buffet at the Shangri-La hotel's Table One Restaurant in Colombo when one of the explosive devices detonated, leaving his daughter, 15-year-old Amelie, and his son, 19-year-old Daniel, critically injured, he told The Times U.K.
"You can’t describe how bad it was," he recalled. "People were screaming. I was with my children. I couldn’t tell whether they were all right, it was dark."
As the two teens lay unconscious amid the chaos and wreckage, Linsey, who was also wounded by shrapnel, was faced with an impossible decision — which of his children he should try to help first.
Thinking his daughter appeared to be in better condition, Linsey told The Times he grabbed his son and "tried to revive him."
“A lady said she'd take my daughter," he recalled. "I carried my son downstairs to an ambulance, we took him to the hospital. I yelled, ‘Please help my son! Please help! Please help!'"
Sadly, doctors were not able to revive Daniel, and Linsey later learned Amelie did not survive her injuries either. The brother and sister — both of whom were dual citizens of the U.S. and U.K. — were among four Americans killed during the attacks, along with 40-year-old Wisconsin native Dieter Kowalski and 11-year-old student Kieran Shafritz de Zoysa.
With the help of the U.S. Embassy, Linsey was able to travel back home to his wife, Angelina, and the pair's two other sons, David, 21, and Ethan, 12 in the U.K. The family says they are now faced with the difficult task of repatriating their loved ones' remains.
Photos of the wreckage:
