Tussle over Coma Bride

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Tussle over Coma Bride
Want daughter? Pay $100,000 for hospital bill, living expenses
Man says demand is his way of keeping Viet bride in Singapore
By Tay Shi'an

February 23, 2009

PICTURE: LIANHE WANBAO

SHE was knocked down by a lorry just half an hour before her wedding on Christmas Eve and has been in a coma since.

Unconscious in her hospital bed, Vietnamese bride-to-be Dinh Thi Thom, 21, is oblivious to the $100,000 storm that is now brewing between her Singaporean fiance and her Vietnamese parents.

The two sides are fighting over who should take care of her, and where.

Her husband-to-be, Mr Teo Boon Teck, 30, a newspaper vendor, has sworn to look after her forever, even though they are legally not man and wife.

He has even pledged to sell his family's four-room flat to pay for her estimated $73,000 hospital bill.

But Miss Dinh's mother has come to Singapore and wants to take her home to Vietnam so that her family can take care of her.

An upset Mr Teo has declared that if she insists on taking Miss Dinh home, he will make her pay him $100,000.

That's $73,000 for the estimated hospital bills and the remainder for Miss Dinh's living expenses in the four months she has been in Singapore.

But Mr Teo said he doesn't really want the money - it's his way for forcing Miss Dinh's family to leave her here in his care.

He told The New Paper on Sunday from MissDinh's bedside at the National University Hospital yesterday: 'I know (her parents) are farmers and unable to pay. I'm not trying to make things difficult for them.

'But it's not safe to move her now, she hasn't recovered yet.

'Who can guarantee that nothing will happen to her on the way to the airport, or to Vietnam? We feel she can get better treatment and have a better recovery here.'

Seeking help

Miss Dinh's mother, Madam Nguyen Thi-Dum, 51, will be going to the Vietnamese embassy tomorrow to seek help and advice on how to go forward.

The New Paper first reported on Mr Teo and Miss Dinh's tragic love story on Valentine's Day.

The couple were introduced by a mutual friend.

After exchanging photos and liking what they saw, Miss Dinh agreed to come to Singapore to be Mr Teo's bride.

From the day she arrived in October last year, she stayed at the Teo family's Jurong West flat and was doted on by Mr Teo and his parents.

They even took wedding photos and went through the traditional tea ceremony.

But in a cruel twist of fate, Miss Dinh was hit by a lorry on 24 Dec, barely half an hour before their solemnisation ceremony.

She was crossing the road just metres away from the venue to meet a friend who wanted to congratulate her before the wedding.

She suffered a brain haemorrhage and underwent surgery, and has been in a coma for the past two months.

Mr Teo has said that even if she remains in this condition forever, he already sees her as his wife and will take care of her as long as she lives.

He said he has spent every night in the past two months at her bedside.

He hasn't gone to work at his newspaper stand all this time; his elderly father has taken over.

His father, Mr Teo Soon Keng, 70, said he and his wife agreed to help and sell the family home to pay for the medical bills if need be, as they already view Miss Dinh as their daughter-in-law.

The family showed The New Paper on Sunday the interim bill from NUH, which now stands at $73,000.

The older Mr Teo said bluntly: 'They (her family) can't just come and take her away, and leave my son with the hospital bill. That's not fair.'

But Madam Nguyen cannot bear to part with her daughter.

Her relative, Madam Mac Thi Hai, 72, who accompanied her to Singapore, told The New Paper on Sunday that MissDinh's parents really wanted to take her home to see her father and sister.

'But they are farm workers, it's impossible for them to raise so much money,' she said.

Borrowed money

Madam Nguyen even had to borrow money from friends and relatives to come to Singapore, though Madam Mac didn't know how much the amount was.

Madam Mac said the family found out about Miss Dinh's accident only about a week ago, when they received a call from the Vietnamese embassy in Singapore - and they were devastated.

They finally managed to fly here on Wednesday.

Mr Teo claimed he did not contact them as Miss Dinh had mentioned before the accident that if anything should happen to her in Singapore, she did not want her parents to know as she didn't want them to worry.

He also did not know how to contact them as she was in a coma.

So he was shocked when he arrived at the hospital and saw them.

On their first night here, he took them home to stay at his family's flat.

Since then, the two women and Mr Teo have been camped at Miss Dinh's hospital bedside every night, each not willing to part with her.

No hard feelings

Madam Mac said that despite the $100,000 demand, there are no ill feelings between the two families - mainly because they are touched by Mr Teo's love for Miss Dinh.

The two families even went to a temple together yesterday to pray for Miss Dinh's recovery.

But this doesn't change her family's stand that since the couple are not legally married, her parents should be the ones to take care of her.

Said Madam Mac: 'Whatever happens, we will let the Vietnamese embassy handle it. Right now, we just hope that she will wake up soon.'

 

[TeeKee]

He has even pledged to sell his family's four-room flat to pay for her estimated $73,000 hospital bill.

The two families even went to a temple together yesterday to pray for Miss Dinh's recovery.

if every-time you have such serious visits to the hospital, you have to sell your HDB Flats, it's shows there's there serious problem with our healthcare system. besides, how many flats can you sell? if you don't have one, be prepared to die.

i donno if praying to inanimate and dead objects can help, but one of my colleague was in coma after giving birth. i pray to Jesus and let Him have mercy on her, so that her child can see her mommy again. she was conscious again. her child is now enjoying her mom love now.

pray to the real God, you get better result.

 

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Tussle over Coma Bride
HOSPITAL SAYS: She's ready to go home
FAMILY SAYS: Do one more op first
By Tay Shi'an

March 01, 2009

NOT LETTING GO: Mr Teo Boon Teck, Miss Dinh's husband-to-be, refuses to leave her side. --TNP PICTURE: HEDY KHOO

SHE lies in a coma, oblivious to a three-way tussle over mounting hospital bills and her future.

Vietnamese bride Dinh Thi Thom was knocked down by a lorry less than 30 minutes before she was to be married to a Singaporean, on Christmas Eve last year.

She suffered brain haemorrhage and has been in a coma ever since.

The tussle:


Stay, which is what her husband-to-be wants.


Stay, then go, because her family wants her to be better before they take her home to Vietnam.


Go, because the hospital feels nothing more can be done for her.

The National University Hospital's stand is that Miss Dinh, 21, no longer needs acute hospital care in Singapore and is fit to return to Vietnam for rehabilitation.

She has been warded at NUH for two months. The hospital has yet to receive any payment of her $73,000 medical bill so far.

ILL-FATED: Mr Teo and Miss Dinh were to be married on Christmas Eve last year.

But Miss Dinh's parents want NUH to perform one more operation on her before taking her back to Vietnam.

The surgery, estimated to cost thousands of dollars, is to replace a portion of her skull back into her head.

The skull portion was removed in an earlier surgery after the accident and has since been stored in her abdomen.

But an NUH spokesman said: 'The surgery will not change the medical condition that Miss Dinh is in as it is purely a cosmetic procedure.

'As the hospital does not want to add to the financial burden of Miss Dinh's family, we have advised her mother to focus on improving Miss Dinh's condition before doing this surgery much later.'

However, her family feels the lorry driver's insurer must pay for her treatment, including this operation.

The spokesman said the hospital's clinical team has conducted a family conference with a translator to explain MissDinh's condition and future care to her mother, Madam Nguyen Thi-Dum, 51, a farmer.

Asking for help

NUH doctors are also contacting a hospital in Vietnam to take care of Miss Dinh and its medical social worker is exploring possible financial avenues for their trip back.

The family had to borrow money to fly to Singapore. They arrived last Wednesday.

Miss Dinh's relative, Madam Mac Thi Hai, 72, who accompanied Madam Nguyen to Singapore, said they are adamant about the second surgery, which they believe will make Miss Dinh better.

She said in Mandarin: 'How can we go back with her like this? They should finish what they started.'

Meanwhile, Miss Dinh's medical bill continues to mount.

Her stay in the Class C ward costs $165.85 each day. That's more than $1,100 a week, excluding medication and other procedures.

Miss Dinh's mother has sought help from the Vietnamese Embassy.

Mr Bui Tan Long, the embassy's first secretary, said they have put Madam Nguyen in touch with a local lawyer to explore their options.

Madam Mac said: 'We are leaving it to the lawyers to contact the insurance company and the hospital. It's out of our hands now.'

Meanwhile, Miss Dinh's husband-to-be, Mr Teo Boon Teck, 30, a newspaper vendor, is sticking to his stand that she remain in his care.

He said that if Miss Dinh's parents insist on taking her back to Vietnam, that's as good as declaring their relationship null and void.

In that case, he wants them to pay the $73,000 hospital bill, plus $30,000 compensation for what he spent on her in the four months she has been in Singapore.

He said: 'If, after the operation, she signs the marriage certificate, then I'll let them take her back to Vietnam.

'If she wants to go back, but we are not married, then I want them to return the money.'

No legal basis

However, it is unlikely that he has any legal basis to make such a claim.

Mr Teo had previously claimed that if Miss Dinh's parents are willing to leave her here with him, he is willing to sell his flat to pay for the medical bills.

NUH's stand is that Miss Dinh's mother, as her next-of-kin, will be making medical decisions on her behalf. And her 'immediate family' is liable for her bills.

Mr Long said the Vietnamese Embassy was thankful to NUH doctors for saving Miss Dinh's life.

He also appealed to Singaporeans for financial help.

He said: 'Please ask your readers if they can help her. They can send (the money) directly to the hospital. In Vietnam, we often do that. As you know, her family is very poor.

'We hope that after the article, someone with money will help her case.'

 

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NUH: Surgery is expensive and won't help
March 01, 2009




ISSUE 1

Whether Miss Dinh should have another operation to fit a portion of her skull back into her head.

The portion was removed in an earlier surgery just after the accident, and has since been stored in her abdomen.


IN ONE CORNER: Miss Dinh's mother, and her husband-to-be, Mr Teo. They feel this op will improve her condition.

IN THE OTHER CORNER: NUH, which says the surgery is purely cosmetic and will not change the medical condition that MissDinh is in.

The op will also cost thousands of dollars and add to the financial burden of her family, which already owes the hospital $73,000.

ISSUE 2

Where Miss Dinh should receive medical treatment

IN ONE CORNER: NUH, which says MissDinh no longer needs acute hospital care in Singapore and is fit to return to Vietnam for rehabilitation.

IN ANOTHER CORNER: Miss Dinh's mother, who wants her to have the second op in Singapore, then return to Vietnam to recover.

IN YET ANOTHER CORNER: Mr Teo, who wants Miss Dinh to remain in Singapore and is ready to take care of her.

If Miss Dinh's parents insist on taking her back to Vietnam, he wants them to pay for $73,000 hospital bill, plus $30,000 compensation for the living expenses he paid for in the four months she has been in Singapore.

The story so far

The New Paper ran two previous reports on Mr Teo and Miss Dinh's tragic love story.

After being introduced by a mutual friend and exchanging photographs, MissDinh agreed to come to Singapore to be Mr Teo's bride.

She arrived in October last year, and stayed at the Teo family's Jurong West flat, where she was already regarded as part of the family.

The couple took wedding photos and went through the traditional tea ceremony.

But on their wedding day, on Christmas Eve last year, Miss Dinh was hit by a lorry, barely half an hour before their solemnisation ceremony.

She suffered a brain haemorrhage and underwent surgery, and has been in a coma for two months.

Police said they are still investigating the accident.

 

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Vietnam mum and S'pore fiance of coma bride in fight over insurance payout, make police reports over threats
S'porean says of fiancee's mum: She spits at us and steals our money
Viet mum says of fiance's family: They want to beat us to death
By Tay Shi'an

March 22, 2009

THEY sit just centimetres apart across a hospital bed. Day after day, hour after hour, steadfastly ignoring each other.

On one side of the single-sized bed is the fiance, newspaper vendor Teo Boon Teck, 30. On the other, his fiance's mother and aunt.

Vietnamese bride Dinh Thi Thom, 21, lies comatose in the centre, a fragile, oblivious wall separating two warring parties.

The two sides make no secret of their contempt for one another. But they are bound by the person who lies between them - Ms Dinh.

On her right side - her Singaporean fiance, whom she was supposed to marry on Christmas Eve last year. She was knocked down by a lorry 30 minutes before the ceremony.

On her left side - her mother Nguyen Thi-Dum, 51, a farmer, and relative Madam Mac Thi Hai, 72, who flew to Singapore last month hoping to take her home.

What started as a touching love story of a lovelorn fiance who refused to let go of his comatose Vietnamese bride has deteriorated into a bitter dispute over money.

Ms Dinh's family has accused Mr Teo of trying to get hold of her insurance money, which is still being worked out, and threatening to 'beat them to death'.

Mr Teo denied this, and has launched his own verbal offensive: They stole from him, spat at his father and got several men to threaten him, he claimed.

Police reports have been lodged by both sides.

This drama is being played out in the National University Hospital, where Ms Dinh has been in a coma for the past four months.

Her mother and aunt spend all day at her bedside and sleep in the ward at night.

Mr Teo spends all day on the other side of her hospital bed, or in the TV room, and sleeps at the hospital lobby at night.

Said Madam Mac on behalf of Madam Nguyen, who only speaks Vietnamese: 'These days, we refuse to speak to him. He's here all day.

TENSION: Mr Teo holding Ms Dinh's hand while her mother ignores him, despite them spending many hours every day together. --TNP PICTURE: CHOO CHWEE HUA

'At night, his father comes. Sometimes, he hugs and kisses her,' she said with a shudder.

'We just ignore him. But the more I sit with him, the more my heart pain.'

Mr Teo's anger, too, is palpable. 'They treat me like a ghost. Sometimes the mother looks at me like I'm trying to kill her.

'But they can't chase me away; they can't say I can't be here.

'I want people to know all the effort I put in. Who has been sitting by her bedside for two months? She knows who loves her the most.'

Soured relations

The animosity is a far cry from when Madam Nguyen and Madam Mac arrived in Singapore last month.

Then, Mr Teo had let the two women spend three nights in his family's Jurong flat.

All three then spent almost a month sharing the floor space around Ms Dinh's hospital bed.

But this soon changed. Each side had its own idea of Ms Dinh's future.

Her mother wants her back in Vietnam so her family could take care of her. Mr Teo wants Ms Dinh to stay in Singapore with him.

If they wanted to take her back, he said, they would have to pay him $30,000 for her living expenses from the time she came to Singapore in October last year to live in his flat.

The money also includes compensation for all the time and effort Mr Teo spent on her in the past four months.

Things came to a head early this month over who has the legal right to the insurance payout from the lorry driver's insurance company.

The Vietnamese embassy approached lawyer K Anparasan, deputy managing partner of KhattarWong, to help Madam Nguyen for free.

But when Mr Anparasan wrote to the insurer on 6 Mar to ask for an interim payment to pay the hospital bill, which stands at $83,000, he discovered that MrTeo had already engaged a lawyer and written to the insurer, also asking for an interim payment.

Mr Anparasan wrote several letters to Mr Teo's lawyer, saying that Madam Nguyen, as Ms Dinh's mother, has the right to act for her, whereas Ms Dinh and Mr Teo are legally not married.

Mr Teo's lawyer wrote back last Friday conceding this. He added that his client should not be held responsible for the hospital bill.

Ms Dinh's relative, Madam Mac, told The New Paper angrily that this showed that Mr Teo was after the insurance money.

The accident is still under police investigation, so it's unknown how much Ms Dinh may receive, or if the lorry driver is liable.

But Mr Teo countered that he asked for the interim payment only to pay for the hospital bill, and would never have kept any of the money for himself. He claimed he would have put it in an account under Ms Dinh's name.

'We're not fighting for the insurance. Her mother doesn't know Singapore law, so we were trying to help her. How would I know she would go and get her own lawyer?

'That's why my lawyer said, let them do it. Or else they would say I'm greedy and after the money.'

But relations deteriorated rapidly from there.

Madam Mac claimed that on Tuesday, Mr Teo and his father followed her into the NUH lift when she was on her way to buying dinner.

She claimed the elder Mr Teo shouted at her, threatening to beat them to death.

She claimed she ran out of the lift and reported the incident to a nurse, who took her to the hospital's police post to make a report, which she showed to The NewPaper.

Madam Mac said that since the threat, she and Madam Nguyen are afraid to go to sleep, with Mr Teo so close.

She said: 'We take turns to sleep and watch every night. Then, we are safe. What if he attacks us in our sleep? What if we get injured or die in Singapore?'

Accusation

But Mr Teo said no such incident happened, and accused Madam Mac of being a liar.

He counter-claimed that Madam Mac got three men to threaten him one night. He said the men had approached and warned him not to return to the ward, or they would turn nasty.

'They are the ones making trouble for me,' he said.

He also claimed that Madam Nguyen had spat on his father. This led to a heated argument.

'My father said, 'If you're not happy, we go to the police post and talk'.'

Mr Teo also made a police report last week against the women, claiming they stole $80 from his house during the three days they stayed there in February.

Why delay making the report? He replied that he wanted to give the women time to explain themselves before going to the police.

On this, Madam Mac said: 'He got the officer to come and ask how much money we had on us.

'(Ms Dinh's mother) was so angry. We are poor, but we're not greedy for this kind of money. I swear, we never took this money, or heaven will strike us down.

'And why is he only mentioning this now, one month later? What's his motive?

'He's empty-handed now, that's why he keeps doing this.'

Mr Teo himself repeatedly insists on the $30,000 compensation, which he insists the women 'must' pay him if they want to take Ms Dinh back to Vietnam.

He said they can take this money from the insurance interim payment.

He said: 'Otherwise, why did I waste two months here in the hospital? To be her slave? They must use their conscience to decide.'

To prove his point, he stood up and held Ms Dinh's right hand, while Madam Nguyen watched warily from the other side.

He whispered fervently into Ms Dinh's ear: 'You know who is good to you. Who sits here for 2 months?

'If I leave you, I'll be struck by lightening. I'm your husband. For you, I gave up working to take care of you. Is this not called love? I can't give up now.'



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The story so far

VIETNAMESE bride Dinh Thi Thom came to Singapore last October to marry Singaporean Teo Boon Teck.

She lived in his flat with his parents. She was knocked down by a lorry less than 30 minutes before their marriage ceremony on Christmas Eve last year. She suffered brain haemorrhage and went into a coma. Mr Teo has been spending every day and night in the hospital since.

Ms Dinh's parents were informed of the accident by the Vietnamese embassy last month, and her mother and aunt flew to Singapore.

Since then, Ms Dinh's family and Mr Teo's family have been fighting over who has the right to take care of her, make decisions over her care, and who has the right to receive her insurance payout, and be responsible for the hospital bill.

 

[eErotica69]

if every-time you have such serious visits to the hospital, you have to sell your HDB Flats, it's shows there's there serious problem with our healthcare system. besides, how many flats can you sell? if you don't have one, be prepared to die.

i donno if praying to inanimate and dead objects can help, but one of my colleague was in coma after giving birth. i pray to Jesus and let Him have mercy on her, so that her child can see her mommy again. she was conscious again. her child is now enjoying her mom love now.

pray to the real God, you get better result.

Yes, pray for her recover!

Btw, you mean all Singaporeans with serious illness are selling their HDB meh? This Vietnamese lady has no Medisave or Medical insurance and I don't think the Vietnamese Government will pay for her bills!!