Wollongong women reflect on Bali bombings, 20 years on

The couple, along with Mrs Hogg's mother, were in Bali for Mrs Hogg's birthday celebrations and her work with a charity.

Their daughter, calling from Australia, told them of an explosion at the Sari Club the night before that had reportedly killed 12 people.

Read more: Bali bombings: Timeline of the terror attacks that changed Australia forever

Mrs Hogg was a physiotherapist and Dr Hogg was a general and vascular surgeon at Wollongong Hospital, so they went to Sanglah Hospital in the island's capital of Denpasar to see if they could help.

That same morning, nurse Chris Min - the clinical manager of Wollongong Hospital's emergency department at the time - woke to the news of the attack.

Ms Min, who was in Bali for the 100th birthday of her children's great-grandmother, was very familiar with the Sari Club - her sister-in-law's shop flanked the nightspot, but the family had gone to Denpasar earlier on the night of the bombings.

Well-practised in handling emergency situations, Ms Min leapt into action and called the private hospital to ask how she could help.

Its response was to head to Sanglah, so Ms Min and her sister-in-law - carrying a wad of cash to pay for anything patients needed - set off.

But the extent of the tragedy was much greater than the initial reports conveyed.

The Hoggs and Ms Min found a hospital filled with people suffering terrible injuries, including severe burns and other traumatic injuries.

Shortly after 11pm the night before, terrorist bombs had torn through the popular tourist spots Sari Club and Paddy's Bar in Kuta, while another was detonated outside the American consulate in Denpasar.

More than 200 people were wounded and ultimately 202 died, including 88 Australians.

Among those killed was 33-year-old Scott Lysaght, a Wollongong man who was living in Jakarta with his wife and baby daughter.

Read more: The mistakes the Bali terrorists made that inadvertently prevented more deaths

Upon arriving at the hospital, Ms Min began assessing the situation and the care the patients needed, in an environment she described as chaotic.

"It was just a matter of going into disaster mode... Who needs the most care?" Ms Min said.

After running into Dr Hogg she also helped him treat patients as he worked under the instruction of a young doctor from Western Australia named Dr Vijith Vijayasekaran, who had recently finished his burns term, and had gone to the hospital to help with his wife, Dr Priya Thalayasingam.

Meanwhile, Mrs Hogg worked to find missing people, keep the patients informed, reassured and as comfortable as possible, and track down the injured Australians.

She was also called upon to work in the morgue and identify those who had died in the attack, many of whom were only identifiable by their clothing or jewellery.

Not only were the Hoggs and Ms Min facing trauma on a huge scale, they were contending with a medical system with far fewer resources than those in Australia.

Mrs Hogg recalled her husband asked for a scalpel and a hospital employee went to retrieve one, but inside the box were just two blades - and no handle.

There was little pain relief in the public hospital, Ms Min said, and they had to make do with a less than ideal analgesic to mitigate the suffering of the patients.

Their work extended to other hospitals, where Mrs Hogg recalled signing for a patient on behalf of the Australian government because they would not release her without being paid.

The three also helped get patients to the airport for repatriation to Australia.

After some 24 hours spent working non-stop to help the victims of the bombings, Ms Min's sister-in-law took her to Bedugul, a place in the mountains.

"It's very quiet. And so my head is just going round and round going, 'What else could I have done? What else could I have done? Did I miss something?' You're just trying to work out the process," she said.

Read more: Indonesia's dilemma over potential release of Bali bomber

With her background in nursing, Ms Min said she was somewhat desensitised to trauma and was not affected to the same extent as those who had been injured or lost a loved one.

Nonetheless, the tragedy she witnessed left its mark.

"When I got home, people wanted to talk to me about it. But I couldn't talk. I couldn't talk about it," she said.

Meanwhile, the Hoggs travelled to tranquil Ubud, and upon their return to Australia, got back to work.

But Mrs Hogg said the horror they had seen caught up to them.

"Both John and I and all the doctors said we were fine. But then afterwards, we did have to have counselling... I just thought I didn't suffer really, I didn't have injuries or whatever. I was just there to help," Mrs Hogg said.

"But it was very traumatic, to see all the suffering and the pain and things... particularly the morgue, that was quite horrific, I still get flashbacks on that."

Mrs Hogg, Dr Hogg and Ms Min later received the Medal of the Order of Australia for their response to the bombings, an honour Ms Min said was humbling.

She said there were many heroes the night of bombings who had gone unsung - people who picked up the injured and raced them to hospital, people who ran back into the flames to rescue others.

Ms Min's own sister-in-law paid for medication, her brother-in-law worked in the morgue, while another sister-in-law, a restaurant owner, cooked 100 meals for patients.

Twenty years on, Ms Min said it was nice to hear the stories of how the survivors had forged ahead in life, some of whom she had treated in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

She also remembers the impact on the Indonesian people.

Meanwhile Mrs Hogg holds onto the good that has come from these terrible events, such as the way people selflessly pitched in to help.

"I think when some tragedy or some terrible thing happens... people come together," she said.

After almost losing her own daughter in an accident last year, she has also found a deeper gratitude for what she has.

"As long as we can focus on positive stuff, the pain is easier to bear," Mrs Hogg said.

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