GALUDRA, Indonesia — The teenager lay dazed amid the settling dust and debris, his leg trapped by a fallen concrete wall. He sensed that he was going to die. So he made a decision: He would cut off his own limb to save his life.
Ignoring the major blood loss, taking deep breaths, the 18-year-old construction worker cut halfway through his right leg just below the knee. Finally, too weak to continue, he begged for help, and a fellow worker finished the job for him in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.6 earthquake that struck Sumatra in September.
“I didn’t want to die in that place,” said the teenager, who goes by one name, Ramlan. “I did what I had to do to stay alive.”
Ramlan has become a hero across Indonesia, a survivor whose sheer will to live drove him to do the unthinkable.
The cellphone company that owned the building where he was injured has offered to buy him an artificial leg.
He said it wasn’t courage that drove him.
“When you are in a situation like that,” he said slowly, “you do what you have to do.”
