For some, hospital is home for more than 30 years

November 18, 2010

Published on The Straits Times, 18 November 2010.

By Melissa Pang  & Judith Tan

A SIX-BED ward in Ren Ci Long Term Care Hospital is the only home that 64-year-old Frederick has known for the past 15 years.

Paralysed from the waist down in 1995 after a failed suicide attempt, he was warded there after spending more than a year recovering from his injuries.

No one came looking for him, and the former army regular, who asked to be known only by his first name, became a "long-staying" patient.

Reminiscing, Frederick said he was once outgoing, and enjoyed playing darts and billiards. His life now is limited to chatting with a fellow patient from the next block.

He also listens to the BBC and watches television.

Frederick was separated from his wife in 1990 - before he became paralysed. He does not suffer from any major ailments, other than his limited mobility, needing help to get in and out of his wheelchair.

He has lost touch with his two grown-up children. Of his six siblings, only two sisters, aged 59 and 54, visit him about once a month at the hospital in Buangkok View.

"I would not want to stay here if I could move around, but I have no choice. I can't live with my sisters because they have their own families to take care of," he said.

There are other long-staying patients in hospitals in Singapore, a number of them even longer than Frederick.

Last month, The Straits Times reported that Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) was seeking a court order to send a bedridden, comatose patient - who has been in its care for more than three years - home to his family.

The hospital said the 43-year-old man could now be cared for at home and asked his family to pay $330,000 in accumulated medical bills ...

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