THE objective to live with the corona virus pandemic is an admirable one, but only when we are ready for it.
The Government’s recent slew of measures to curb the spread of the virus after a relaxation last month caused a spike in infections is turning into a personal tragedy for me.
In particular, I refer to its move to ban all visitors from seeing their loved ones who are warded in the hospital.
My 90 year mum experienced difficulties in breathing on Tuesday morning last week and in view of her advanced age, I took her to the SGH’s A&E department immediately.
As she had a slight fever (37.4 degree centigrade), she was put into the isolation ward for observation.
There was a shortage of beds in the general ward and she found herself confined to the isolation ward for three nights even though she was virus-free.
While she was thus confined, the Government announced that it was banning visitors from hospital until next month.
This meant that even when she came out of the isolation ward, I would be unable to see her as the hospital is being turned into a giant isolation ward.
The confinement turned out to be a nightmare for her and caused her illness to deteriorate sharply.
When I sent her to the A&E department, she was clear-headed and complained that she didn’t see the need to see a doctor because she was fine.
I was even able to drive her to the hospital without activating an ambulance.
The night before, she was still eating perfectly and watching TV.
Because she had previously suffered two strokes, she is wheel-chair bound and unable to move her hands.
This handicap, together with her advanced age, makes it impossible for her to handle gadgets like the mobile phone.
As a result, I was unable to keep in touch with her while she was in the isolation ward and I could only rely on my conversations with the nurses to ascertain her condition.
On the third morning of her confinement, I managed to get a nurse to take my iPad into the ward so that I could do a video call with my mum.
When I saw her on video, I was shocked by the deterioration in her condition in just three days.
She was incoherent and she couldn’t recognise me at all. Worse, she appeared very frail.
The next day, she was put into the “dangerously ill list” and I was finally able to visit her.
I have no doubt that her medical condition deteriorated so badly and so fast because she was badly frightened being left alone in the ward without her loved ones by her side.
This had caused her to lose the will to live.
We had never left her on her own since her second stroke over 10 years ago, making sure that there is someone close by her side during her hospital stay.
In fact, during her previous two admissions to SGH last month, the hospital had been very kind in allowing her helper to stay by her side to be her caregiver and this had helped to accelerate her recovery.
In the two days I was given visitations, I held her hands and managed to coax her back from the brink.
Then another roadblock emerges. As her condition improves, she was taken off the “dangerously ill list” and I was barred from seeing her again.
When I appealed to the doctors and nurses, they could only shake their hands and say that this is “government policy” and there was nothing they could do about it.
Before I left, my mum was begging me not to abandon her and to bring her home.
I would have done so, if she had not been so weak and she was still on oxygen support. It broke my heart to see her in such a state.
The nurses were very kind and agreed to help to set up video calls using my iPad so that I could reach out to my mother as the confinement starts again.
But when I tried to speak to her over the video last night, she gave me a blank look and I am worried that she may suffer a relapse without me by her side.
I have looked up the criteria for visitation and noticed that it allows visitations for paediatric patients.
But the policy-makers fail to make exceptions for very old people like my mum who are every much in need of additional care-giver support as very young patients.
I wonder why. Is this because they assume that a 90 year old is still as sharp-witted as a 60 year old like me, and still be able to cope with daily activities like a younger person?
But my mum is unable to handle a handphone and cannot feed herself.
She is as helpless as a newborn baby and needs all the love and support she can get.
I hope that out of compassion, the policy-makers will take another look at their visitation policies during this lockdown period and allow one pre-designated visitor to see their elderly loved ones once a day – like what they have done for paediatric patients.
Having lived a ripe old age, it is very cruel to leave them forlorn and lonely in the ward without any of their loved ones by their side, especially if they are feeble and helpless like my mum.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung gained widespread publicity with his pronouncement that the current wave of cases should be seen a rite of passage in order to regain normality.
But does he know that his wager is my mother’s life?
