'Our world was shattered': Mother of two-year-old boy who was the only Australian to die in the devastating Beirut explosion shares heartbreaking message three months on
Isaac Oehlers died in hospital after being hit by shards of glass while sitting in his highchair when the explosion rocked the Lebanese capital on August 4
The mother of a two-year-old boy who died in August's deadly blast in Beirut has shared a heartbreaking message about the son she lost.
Isaac Oehlers died in hospital after being hit by shards of glass while sitting in his highchair when the explosion rocked the Lebanese capital on August 4.
Issac was the only Australian to die in the horrific explosion caused by the detonation of a stockpile of ammonium nitrate.
Three months on from the tragedy that killed 204 people, his mother Sarah Copland said she and her husband Craig Oehlers are still coming to terms with life without Isaac.
'Three months, 92 days, 2208 hours since my two-year-old son Isaac, a clever and loving boy, died a painful and needless death in the #BeirutBlast. Three months since our world was shattered,' she tweeted on Wednesday.
'Yet there has been no #justice, no #accountability & not one word of condolence from those in power #NeverForget.'
The family's unit was only 700 metres from the blast site, where the toddler was hurt.
Three months on from the tragedy that killed 204, his mother Sarah Copland said she and her husband Craig Oehlers are still coming to terms with life without Isaac
Ms Copland took to Twitter on Wednesday, three months on from the horrific blast that killed her son
The explosion killed at least 200 people, injured thousands and reduced once bustling cosmopolitan streets to ruble
Ms Copland was knocked to the ground by the deadly surge after all the windows of their fourth floor apartment were blown out, while Mr Oehlers was in the bathroom and rushed out to a horrific scene.
'There were bits of live wires dangling from the ceiling. It was total devastation and, of course, the first thing I thought of was, "Oh my God! Where's Isaac? Where's Sarah?" And I ran as fast as I could from the bathroom to the living room,' Mr Oehlers told ABC's Four Corners in October.
The young family retreated to the bathroom where they saw the extent of Isaac's injuries including a huge wound in his chest from a big piece of glass.
They fled to the street to make their way to a hospital for treatment where they discovered the devastation caused by the blast.
The explosion killed 204 people, injured thousands and reduced once bustling cosmopolitan streets to rubble.
Ms Copland was forced to stand in the middle of the frantic street to stop a local man, who took the family to Rafic Hariri hospital.
She recalled the man driving at full speed down the wrong side of the road in order to dodge traffic and get the family to medical help.
On arrival Ms Copland was taken for treatment because she had large glass shards in her head, leaving Mr Oehlers to head to the operating theatre with Isaac.
He said it was a devastating experience that will stay with him for the rest of his life.
'I'll tell you what. No parent should ever have to be in the same room as his child, who's on an operating table, and see the heart monitor flat line and hear all the alarms go off,' Mr Oehlers said.
Issac was the only Australian to die in the horrific explosion caused by the detonation of a stockpile of ammonium nitrate
The family had been trying to leave Beirut for months but had been trapped in the city amid the coronavirus pandemic.
They had managed to book a flight home to Perth in late August, but sadly the whole family could not make the journey.
'They shut the airports. We couldn't leave to get home. So, we had made several attempts to get back this year and we were so close and just three weeks difference and our whole lives would be … just be the way they were supposed to be,' Ms Copland said.
The couple have since returned home, and Ms Copland has given birth to a baby boy.
