Bus crash badly hurts newlyweds in Egypt

By David Weir - Surrey North Delta Leader - May 05, 2008

Evan Seal video

Steve and Sharon Pannu should have been welcoming their daughter and son-in-law home to Surrey from their honeymoon Friday afternoon.

Instead, they were desperately searching for updates on the conditions of Jennifer Pannu-Eladam, 25, and Rick Eladam, 31, after the newlyweds were seriously injured in a fiery bus accident in Egypt Thursday.

“I don’t know if Jennifer is going to make it or not. It’s bad – it’s really, really bad,” Sharon Pannu said as she fought back tears Friday morning.

The couple was married in September and spent the past month touring Egypt. The newlyweds were the only Canadians on a tourist bus travelling from the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to the airport in Cairo for their flight home.

The bus reportedly missed a curve on the highway, rolled, and then burst into flames, killing nine people and injuring 30 others.

“My understanding is the bus driver fell asleep and the bus rolled three or four times (before) it came to a stop,” Sharon Pannu said.

Eladam crawled through the wreckage looking for his bride, eventually pulling her from certain death.

But they weren’t safe yet. They had to jump off a 10-foot cliff to get away from the burning wreck. Eladam went first and then turned to his wife, who was at the cliff’s edge bleeding – her left arm nearly severed in the accident.

“He said to her, ‘Please jump, I promise to catch you’. “ Sharon Pannu said.

The bus exploded before she could jump, propelling Pannu-Eladam face-first off the cliff. The fall shattered her teeth. Her face and legs were also burned in the accident.

Doctors at a hospital in Cairo amputated Pannu-Eladam’s left arm Thursday. They were forced to operate again Friday to control internal bleeding.

Eladam suffered internal injuries that also required surgery. He’s stable, but is currently unable to walk.

Sun Life, the family’s insurance company, is working with B.C. BedLine to secure hospital beds here, but has not received the green light to evacuate the young couple to Canada.

“B.C. BedLine has been in touch with the physician in Egypt and the one patient who is more critically injured is not stable enough to be transported safely,” said Sarah Plank, spokesperson for B.C.’s health ministry. “The patient needs to be stable before anyone can contemplate doing the transfer.

“(When she’s stable), that’s when we can make arrangements for the bed.”

Until then, the newlyweds remain half a world away from their anxious parents.

“So basically, our two Canadian kids are almost lying dead somewhere in an Egypt hospital and we just want to get them home,” Sharon Pannu said.

“I just want the kids to come home so that they can be near family and get the help that they need.”

The newlyweds met three years ago when Eladam, who grew up in Mission, visited the Pannu family’s Fleetwood home with his best friend.

“She was standing at the top of the stairs like a princess and he was at the bottom of the stairs with his friend,” Sharon Pannu recalled. “Both of them individually told me that when they saw each other, it was like ‘wow.’ And after that, they’ve been inseparable.

“I told her the best place to meet your future husband was to stay at home and he would come to you.”

The newlyweds had settled in Surrey, moving into a townhouse a few blocks from the Pannus’ home.

dweir@surreyleader.com

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Bus crash badly hurts newlyweds in Egypt

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