Blast survivor a ‘miracle man’
BY JONATHAN CHEW
KUALA LUMPUR: Family members and friends have called David Goh a “miracle man” after he survived a deadly bomb blast at a supermarket in Yangon, Myanmar, on May 7.
Goh, a 52-year-old motivational speaker, who sustained partial nerve damage in his left arm and needed 50 stitches for his injuries, counted himself blessed that he still lived to tell the story.
“Friends have been saying that they don’t know what weapon can harm me, since I managed to walk out of a building that was bombed.
“I guess God is not done with me yet,” he told The Star at the Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre where he is being treated.
Goh was among 15 members of the Christ Lutheran Church in Setapak visiting Yangon when a series of bomb explosions ripped through the city, killing 11 and wounding 162 others.
Goh and three members were injured.
Goh said it was an act of compassion that his group went to the Junction 8 Centre in Mayangon Township as they were looking for gifts to be given to an orphanage they were visiting later.
Tired from walking, Goh sat down outside the supermarket and called four-year-old Adrian Patrick Wong to sit with him.
“There was a loud explosion, and before I knew it, tiles and glass shards were flying at us,” he said of the 3pm blast.
In an instinctive act that probably saved Adrian from more severe injuries, Goh shielded the boy as debris fell on them.
Goh said he would always remember the pandemonium that greeted him afterwards.
“It was utter chaos. There were people screaming and running, and there were so many bodies lying around – some of them were without legs.
“Adrian was crying as he was in excruciating pain and I knew we had to get out for fear of another blast,” he said.
He gathered his 38-year-old wife Judy, Adrian, Adrian’s maid and Adrian’s mother and got into a taxi to take them to Yangon General Hospital.
“People in the hospital were wondering why I was singing and being so jovial.
“Why shouldn’t I be when God had just protected me?” he said, adding that the team planned to visit Myanmar again in the future.
All 15 Malaysians have returned from Myanmar, with the most seriously-injured member, Catherine Teh Cheng Lian, arriving on Saturday.