'I will fight for her': Uncle of crushed Hong Kong maid speaks out minutes before her death

In a poignant interview that ended just minutes before Elis Kurniasih died on Monday night, her uncle told the South China Morning Post why it was he and not her parents who had flown to be by the domestic worker’s side.

“The parents really wanted to come over, [especially] the mother,” said Sudrajat, who flew into Hong Kong from Indonesia on Friday. “But because there are only four people in the house – Elis’ mother and father and Elis’ two children – if her mother left, who would look after the rest of them?”

Elis’s 10-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son were to learn on Monday night that they would not see their mother alive again.

Doctors had warned Sudrajat earlier on Monday that Elis might not survive her injuries after being crushed by a 60kg slab of concrete that fell on her as she slept on the second-floor baclony of her employment agency in North Point.

Speaking at the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan, where his niece was taken after the accident, Sudrajat, a farmer and father of three children said that following the accident in Hong Kong in the early hours of last Wednesday he was woken at 5am by Elis’ 51-year-old mother, Ani Maesaroh, knocking at the door of his home in West Bandung, West Java.

He said she was sad and confused, and so was he. Before he could fully process the news, Elis’ mother had already asked him to come to Hong Kong to represent the family.

He added there were no tears then, because no one had actually told them the extent of Elis’ injuries. “[Her mother] tried to be strong in the beginning and just wanted to settle everything.”