While most people receive care and support from their friends and families, this does not apply to Shah*. Shah, who is 28 years-old and single, suffers from tophaceous gout, glycogen storage disease and other multiple medical conditions. He was admitted into NUH for malnutrition and functional decline.
Shah’s mother has passed away and his father has since remarried. According to Shah, his father and stepmother sometimes refused to give him food and would even resort to beating him. The strained relations between Shah and his stepmother eventually resulted in him shifting to live with his sister instead.
Unfortunately, financial difficulties forced his sister and her family to sell their HDB flat and shift into a rented room. Needless to say, this made it inconvenient for Shah to continue living with his sister’s family.
While Shah had previously been working as a cleaner, his poor health gave him mobility problems which subsequently led to him being forced to quit his job. Unemployed and friendless, Shah had little means of supporting himself and no one else to turn to. Help from his family was not an option as Shah’s father was jobless and his siblings were struggling to make ends meet.
At his stepmother’s request, the family decided to send Shah to a residential home of Centre for Enabled Living (CEL). However, the long waiting time for a vacancy meant that Shah needed to be placed in a private nursing home in the interim period while he waited to be admitted into CEL.
By providing financial assistance of $7,500, the NUH PCF helped to fund Shah’s interim placement with a private nursing home where for the first time in a long while, Shah finally found himself in an environment with people around to care for him.
*Name has been changed for patient confidentiality |
