Epileptic's mum claims she wasn't allowed to give son his
medicine in lock-up By Esther Tan
The last thing he remembered was waiting for a taxi in Sungei
Road earlier that evening.
Mr Tong, 34, said a police officer told him he had been taken in
for drunken behaviour and refused to let him call his mother for
his seizure medication.
'I told them I had fits but (the police) didn't believe me. I
asked them to take me to the hospital, but they said 'no',' said Mr
Tong, who has been suffering from epilepsy since 1996.
After three hours in the lock-up without food, water or
medication, Mr Tong suffered another attack.
His mother, Madam Er Swee Chew, told The Straits Times that the
officers still would not let her son go.
'They told me he was having an attack but there were ambulance
staff attending to him,' said the 67-year-old housewife.
She had his medication, but the officers would not give it to
him, she said.
They also refused to talk to staff at the Singapore General
Hospital who could verify her son was epileptic, she claimed.
It was only after Mr Tong's older brother spoke to them that he
was finally released. 'Mun Cheong's brother told them that if they
didn't release him, they had to be responsible for anything that
may happen to him,' said Madam Er.
It was past midnight by then.
It is not the first time that epilepsy patients, like Mr Tong,
have been arrested by the police on suspicion of unruly behaviour
or drunkenness.
Mr Goh Keng Hwee, executive director of the charitable
organisation Epilepsy Care Group, said his group has encountered at
least five such cases in the last three years.
They were released when the police confirmed with hospitals and
family members that they were epileptic.
Her son had been arrested before, in 1999, said Madam Er.
Then, officers allowed her to see him, she said. They also took
him to a hospital.
Epilepsy is a neurological condition in which recurrent,
unprovoked seizures take place in sufferers, said Dr Ho King Hee,
45, a consultant neurologist.
Mr Goh estimates that 16,000 people here have epilepsy.
Another patient, who declined to be named, told The Straits
Times he was arrested by the police last month for brandishing a
knife during a quarrel with his 15-year-old son.
He has no memory of the incident, as he was suffering a
seizure.
While the behaviour of some people having a seizure may appear
to be bizarre, drunken or disruptive, they are rarely violent, said
Mr Goh.
Those around them should let the seizure pass and make sure the
person does not hurt himself. If it lasts more than five minutes,
they should call an ambulance.
Members of the care group are issued a card containing
information such as their addresses, the kind of medication taken
and their doctors' names.
Mr Tong had a card, but was not carrying it when he was
arrested.
In a letter to The Straits Times Forum page on Monday, Mr Goh
noted that there was a need for the police to recognise the signs
of a seizure.
He said the care group had approached the Singapore Police Force
in 2004 with an offer to conduct training classes for officers and
recruits but it was not taken up.
A police spokesman told The Straits Times yesterday that they
were looking into the case.
He maintained that police officers are trained to identify and
handle persons suffering from various medical conditions, including
epilepsy.
When contacted, the mayor of the North West District, Dr Teo Ho
Pin, said it would be good for police officers to recognise the
signs and symptoms of epilepsy.
He said that as officers would not want to be responsible for
administering medication, the best thing to do would be to send the
person in question to hospital.
I feel we need to give the benefit of the doubt. After all, it
may be real. But I do feel that this is one of the challenges that
law enforcers face. It is difficult to distinguish a real
case from a fake one. And of cos, I do agree that there are people
who will take advantage of the seizure condition to get away with
the law.