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Ex-SIA girl, who suffered severe burns in 2000, has message for Tanjong Pagar accident burn victim
Madam Farzana Abdul Razak (left) said she was glad to hear of the progress made by Ms Raybe Oh, who is also a former SIA stewardess.PHOTOS: COURTESY OF FARZANA ABDUL RAZAK, KEVIN LIM
Zaihan Mohamed Yusof
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SINGAPORE - She watched in horror as
the video clip of a fiery car crash in Tanjong Pagar unfolded.
But Madam Farzana Abdul Razak also felt admiration for the young woman seen running towards the car,
which had slammed into a shophouse and burst into flames on Feb 13.
As a survivor of a Singapore Airlines (SIA) crash more than two decades ago, Madam Farzana, 39, understood the long road ahead for Ms Raybe Oh Siew Huey, who was trying to save her boyfriend and four others trapped in the burning wreck.
The rescue attempt was futile and Ms Oh, 26, clad in just T-shirt and shorts,
suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body. All five men, including her boyfriend Jonathan Long, 29, the driver of the white BMW M4 coupe, died.
"I don't know the extent of her injuries but I know she is a strong woman," Madam Farzana told The Sunday Times in a telephone interview from her home in Kuala Lumpur. "Right now, she needs to focus only on healing her body and mind."
Madam Farzana speaks from experience. In 2000, she was one of the survivors of Flight 006, which crashed while taking off in Taipei on the night of Oct 31, killing 83 of the 179 people on board.
Then 18, she was in her fourth month as an air stewardess with the national carrier.
Madam Farzana, who is now married with three children, managed to escape onto the tarmac. Despite their injuries, she and her colleagues continued to help evacuate passengers from the rear of the Boeing 747.
"I didn't feel any pain and realised the state I was in only after a passenger, who happened to be a doctor, told me I was severely injured and needed to go to a hospital."
What she initially thought were burnt pieces of her pantyhose were in reality pieces of her skin peeling off.
She spent the next two months in hospitals in Taiwan and Singapore. She had suffered smoke inhalation, internal bleeding and burns to 45 per cent of her body.
They left scars on her hands, legs and face. She went through 11 skin grafts and wore pressure garments for the next few years.
Madam Farzana was glad to hear of the progress made by Ms Oh, who is also a former SIA stewardess.
After 10 days in Singapore General Hospital's intensive care unit, Ms Oh was moved - conscious and in a stable condition - to a high-dependency ward.
Ms Raybe Oh suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body trying to save her boyfriend and four others trapped in the burning wreck. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
"What I want to share with her (Ms Oh) is not to lose hope and blame yourself for all that has gone wrong," Madam Farzana said.
"The healing process will be a long one but you must want to get better for yourself."
Today, she is able to laugh at the famous "mummy" photo which shows her, heavily bandaged, giving a thumbs up from her hospital bed.
She even jokingly tells strangers, who ask about the scars on her hands, that she was an acid burn victim.
But for eight years after the crash, she was deep in depression.
When the bandages finally came off her face two weeks after the crash, she felt she had been robbed of her looks and future. She did not recognise the person in the mirror.
"I couldn't accept the new reality of life. The change was just too much to bear," Madam Farzana said.
The bandages came off Madam Farzana's face two weeks after the crash, and she did not recognise the person in the mirror. PHOTO: THE NEW PAPER
Survivor's guilt also weighed heavily on her as four of her colleagues died in the crash.
"There were times I felt they (her deceased colleagues) were at peace while I was not," she said.
Her injuries meant she would not be able to continue what had been a dream job as an air stewardess, or take other front-line jobs involving face-to-face dealings with the public.
In a past interview, Madam Farzana, who is now an administrative assistant in a loss adjustment firm, had said she felt like a goldfish in Singapore because people asked too many questions.
Her road to recovery began when she moved to Kuala Lumpur in 2006. A year later, she found love and married Mr Don Yazid, who had given her "a lot of space to heal". They had their first child in 2008.
It took a fall during the second trimester of her first pregnancy to finally jolt her out of depression.
"I realised there was more to life than living selfishly in the past," Madam Farzana said. "I've learnt all wounds heal over time - emotional scars too."
Source:
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/ex-sia-girl-traces-her-recovery-after-plane-crash