February 22, 2009 by admin
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under: Media
articles
New Paper,
22 Feb 2009
TNP
link
THEIR household
income is just $2,000. So how, their friends asked them, can they
take on the Government?
You
will lose, their friends said. And you will be worse off because of
the costs.
But
Mr Tan Kian Lee, 50, and his wife, Madam Hor Hong Kiow, 47, refused
to buckle under the enormity of the challenge.
‘It
was a nerve-racking experience,’ said Mr Tan, of taking on the
Ministry of Defence.
Their son, Chia
Wee, had become an invalid after he was found unconscious while he
was in National Service.
He
was their hope. He was to have gone to university and supported
them when he graduated.
Mr
Tan said in Mandarin: ‘My son began NS as a healthy soldier but he
came out a vegetable. He used to jog and do standing broad jumps
every day. Now, he’s like a baby.’
When
four years of talks with Mindef and the Attorney-General’s Chambers
came to naught, the couple sued Mindef for compensation – and took
it all the way to High Court.
On
16 Jan, the Tans’ dogged determination paid off when the High Court
ruled that Chia Wee, now 26, was entitled to
compensation.
‘Many people have
told us that we’re very brave to sue
the Government,’
Madam Hor, a bank teller, said in Mandarin, ‘especially when we’re
not rich. But I believe anyone in our position would have done the
same.
‘Some people even
told us we may lose the case as we were up against the Government
and we’d have to pay costs if we lost.
‘We’re not greedy.
Going to court was really a last resort and we’re really grateful
to our lawyer. Till today, our lawyer has not charged us for his
work.’
Their lawyer, Dr
Lau Teik Soon, is a former People’s Action Party Member of
Parliament for Serangoon Gardens.
Looking at photos
of Chia Wee in happier times, Mr Tan, who is unemployed, sighed:
‘He had hoped to go to UniSIM to study business and support us
after he graduated.
‘He
was enthusiastic about NS despite being a storeman. He obeyed
instructions without complaint and always smiled when he left for
the camp.
‘Every day, we’d
buy him supper so he could have his favourite burgers when he came
home.’
Shocked
Chia
Wee, a business diploma holder from Temasek Polytechnic, had told
his parents he could do a variety of jobs with a business
degree.
Mr Tan
said: ‘Now, he can only stare at us when we visit
him.
‘We have accepted
that he’ll never be able to look after us. At least, we’ll get some
compensation so we can care for him.’
The
couple’s ordeal began when the Singapore Armed Forces called with
the bad news that Chia Wee was discovered unconscious at the foot
of his three-storey barracks at Seletar East Camp.
He
was found at 6pm on 3 Aug 2005.
Mr
Tan recalled: ‘I was so shocked that I could barely stand. My
daughter, Chia Min, had to support me.’
The
tragedy affected Chia Min so much that she did badly for her O
levels that year, scoring 29 points for her best five
subjects.
She
re-sat for her O levels in 2006 and scored 15 points, qualifying
for polytechnic courses.
Mr
Tan and Madam Hor sought an explanation from Mindef but details
were sketchy as there were no witnesses.
One
of Mr Tan’s friends, who lives in Pasir Ris, took him to a
meet-the-people’s session with Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean in
November 2005.
Mr
Tan said: ‘My friend spoke on my behalf and one of Mr Teo’s
assistants wrote a letter. Within 10 days, Mindef replied, saying
it was investigating.’
In
April 2006, Mindef officials met Mr Tan, informing him they did not
know what led to Chia Wee’s tragedy as there were no witnesses. The
ministry offered to give Mr Tan $500 a month for five years to help
him care for Chia Wee at home.
Mindef also said it
would not provide additional compensation, claiming its checks
showed Chia Wee was not hurt in the line of duty.
Not
knowing what to do, Mr Tan delayed discharging his son, who remains
in a step-down facility at Tan Tock Seng Hospital
(TTSH).
Why
didn’t he just accept the monthly compensation of $500?
Mr
Tan said: ‘I wouldn’t get anything after five years and my son
needs lifelong care. I was also worried that if I accepted this
offer, it would mean I couldn’t pursue legal action against
Mindef.’
In
March 2007, Mindef stopped paying for Chia Wee’s hospitalisation
after having paid more than $30,000 for his medical
treatment.
Worried
Mr
Tan said: ‘I took that to mean Mindef was absolving itself of any
liability. That’s unfair because my son got injured in camp, not
while he was off-duty.
‘At
that point, my wife and I considered legal action as it was the
only chance we had of getting compensation.
‘It’s not that we
want to leave Chia Wee in TTSH permanently, but we can’t afford to
hire a nurse to care for him at home.’
Madam Hor’s
colleague recommended Dr Lau to the couple and he, together with Ms
Rajvant Kaur, represented them for free.
In
August 2007, the Tans had a meeting with the Attorney-General’s
Chambers to resolve the dispute, but to no avail.
Dr
Lau told The New Paper: ‘We were hoping to settle the issue of
liability amicably but it wasn’t a meeting of two
minds.’
Soon
after that, the Tans sued.
Mr
Tan said: ‘I spent two hours reading my 40-page affidavit every
day. My English is limited and I was worried of slipping up while
testifying.’
After a four-day
hearing last month, Justice Tay Yong Kwang ruled in the Tans’
favour.
Mindef has not
appealed against the verdict.
Dr
Lau told The New Paper that the next step is to assess the degree
of Chia Wee’s disability and, using Manpower Ministry guidelines,
work out how much he should get.
Mr
Tan said: ‘We would have had to pay the A-G’s costs if we had lost.
It was a risk we had to take. But if we didn’t take this step, we
wouldn’t get any compensation.
‘Of
course, we’re happy to win. After such a long time, we finally got
justice.’
They need to buy $3,000 bed for
son
THE
Tans have no proper bed of their own.
Now
they will have to buy a motorised special bed costing $3,000 for
their son.
The
couple, who also have a daughter in polytechnic, live in a spartan
three-room flat at Old Airport Road.
It
is a flat that indicates their modest income.
The
family sleep on mattresses on the floor instead of on
beds.
Their living room
has a sofa and two armchairs, but no coffee table.
Instead of Chia Wee
supporting them in their old age, Mr Tan and Madam Hor will now
have to care for him for the rest of his life.
They
spend about $2,000 a year on their daughter’s school
fees.
They
intend to use the compensation, which the court will assess at a
later date, to hire a nurse to care for Chia Wee at
home.
His
vegetative state means he has to be fed through a tube and wear
diapers all the time.
The
Tans have decided against placing Chia Wee in a nursing home as it
will cost between $1,200 and $1,800 a month.
Mr
Tan said: ‘If our son stays in a home, we’d have to spend money on
transport to see him every day.
‘I’m
not working, so I can care for him at home. We hope to use the
compensation money to buy diapers, milk and a proper bed for
him.’
Affordable
Bendemeer Medical
Marketing & Nursing Services, which provides training for home
nursing, is willing to work out an affordable package for the
Tans.
Its
head nurse, who asked to be known as Ms Angie, said: ‘We can train
Mr Tan to change the diapers, clean him and top up the feeding
tube.’
She
added that Chia Wee’s parents will need to acquire a nursing bed,
the type used in hospitals, to prevent him from developing
bedsores.
She
explained: ‘The nursing beds are motorised and have ripple
mattresses which have an alternating pressure pump and a special
air-mattress. These will boost blood circulation and prevent
bedsores.’
Such
beds cost around $3,000 but MsAngie said the company can source for
donated beds from previous patients.
Source:
http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=2307#more-2307
