Please Help Me Save My Dad



father

Update 27th May 2014 – my father has passed away on the 24th May 2014…he has fought the good fight, and now he has been called to be with the Lord.

As saddened as I and the entire family can be, we understand that God’s ways are always higher than our ways, and perhaps we can slowly accept the passing of this wonderful man I call father.

I will update you in while, after I have settled my father’s funeral which lasts from 25th and 26th May 2014 for the wake, and on the 27th of May will be the funeral and cremation.

On behalf of the Chua Family, I, Nigel, thank you for all the donations that had poured in to help support my dad’s medical bills – the amount is still short, but as my dad had passed on, we think it’s not right to ask anymore for donations. Thank you.

Dear readers and internet

My name is Nigel, and I am the founder and writer of this blog. You may not know me, but I would like to ask for your help to support the medical treatment of my father.

He is fighting for his life in Gleneagles Hospital in Singapore, in ICU Room 2 at this very moment. He is Malaysian and doesn’t have insurance to fall back on, and we don’t have that much cash.

As the cost is quite high, we are trying to raise funds for his medical, to be able to save his life. If you’d like to donate, please click below here to go to my PayPal page. If you prefer to wire transfer, wire transfer details are at the bottom of this post ya. I apologize in advance, PayPal button doesn’t allow me to put an open amount for you to choose from…if you’d like to send a different amount, please wire instead ya. Thank you in advance.

MY FATHER, MY HERO

Before I ask more, I would like to share with you who my father is. He is truly a trooper, a hero. He was born in a very poor family. His father had four wives, and that’s why he had never had much time with his own father.

Being from a poor family, he never had the opportunity to study for his university, his single mom couldn’t afford it. Even though he got a scholarship in New Zealand, his mother couldn’t afford to buy him the plane ticket to fly there, though the university had accepted him.

Undaunted, he chose to work full time as a medical sales representative and study part time. His sister shared with us recently how he would live on very cheap local bread (called “roti prata” or “roti canai”), do his sales, and then come home to study. He is a very industrious man, never complaining about his plight.

I think, that is my greatest pain. That he never did complained about his life, no matter how tough it is.

He is the single breadwinner of the household, with 4 children. With no education, he worked his way up being an income tax officer with Malaysian Income Tax Department, and stayed with them since he was 22 years old. At this time of publishing, he would have worked with and for them for 37 years.

WHAT HAPPENED

According to the respiratory and ICU specialist, he likely have gotten the bacteria months ago, and the problem was compounded due to a series of lung infections and urinary tract infections, which decreased his immunity. He was also coughing for a long period of time, but he refused to see a doctor nor take leave, because he is retiring soon and wanted to reserve his annual leave to encash for his retirement at the end of this year.

Yes, he’s that sort of man.

The quiet, uncomplaining man who will just soldier on. According to my mom, he is trying his best to conserve as much as he can so he can retire without problems. Over the past 2 years, he had been making preparations for his retirement, and his most famous statement when mom told him to keep working was

It’s my privilege to retire.

He has been working all his life, bringing up 4 children and one wife, and now he is going to retire, he’s fighting for his life. And he hasn’t had a chance to truly live, and he may very well not survive.

THE MEDICAL PROBLEM

He has been intubated since 10th May 2014, in a private hospital in Johor Bahru, but by 18th May 2014, we couldn’t take it anymore, and scheduled an international transfer to Singapore private hospital. There were no availabilities in the public hospitals, so we had no choice.

Actually, we received a call from Dr Su who explained the situation and what we can do to potentially save my father’s life. As he is aware of the costs, he said that they will work on a limited budget approach, and use sparingly whatever needs to be done.

The doctors are working to save his lungs…and then he developed pulmonary embolism. Working on that…and now he has a full blown sepsis, with kidney dysfunction. Any more dysfunction…and he will have very low chances.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO SAVE MY DAD

The doctors are saying that to give up now because we don’t want dialysis or more cost, is not an ideal solution; as they have had patients on dialysis surviving, assuming nothing worse happens such as more organs dysfunction. The doctors said that if in the event they think that they cannot do more, they will inform us.

They recommend us to try dialysis first, his lungs should improve over the next couple of days, and we take it one step a time. This will increase our daily costs about SGD 1500 – SGD3500 per day, but we’ll know in a couple of days if papa still has a chance to live.

As our costs are increasing, we would like to ask for financial aid, which we will send out in a separate SMS/WhatsApp/Email. There is no obligations to give, but if you do want to, we appreciate all forms and amounts.

As the cost is quite high, we are trying to raise funds for his medical, to be able to save his life. If you’d like to donate, please click below here to go to my PayPal page. If you prefer to wire transfer, wire transfer details are at the bottom of this post ya. I apologize in advance, PayPal button doesn’t allow me to put an open amount for you to choose from…if you’d like to send a different amount, please wire instead ya. Thank you in advance.

THE AMOUNTS RECEIVED WILL BE USED FOR

1. medical & rehabilitation treatment (for now and ongoing, if papa survives). Current estimated costings will be SGD 250,000.00 and above.

2. if papa doesn’t survive, the amount will go to managing funeral-related expenses, and remaining to his wife (our mom).

3. loans will be repaid as soon as possible (I will meet/discuss with those who had extended credit to us)

Please keep praying for us, and thank you.

Nigel
On behalf of Chua Family

Please help me save my dad.

My dad and mom, during happier and healthier times.

Update 27th May 2014 – my father has passed away on the 24th May 2014…he has fought the good fight, and now he has been called to be with the Lord. As saddened as I and the entire family can be, we understand that God’s ways are always higher than our ways, and perhaps we can slowly accept the passing of this wonderful man I call father.

I will update you in while, after I have settled my father’s funeral which lasts from 25th and 26th May 2014 for the wake, and on the 27th of May will be the funeral and cremation.

On behalf of the Chua Family, I, Nigel, thank you for all the donations that had poured in to help support my dad’s medical bills – the amount is still short, but as my dad had passed on, we think it’s not right to ask anymore for donations. Thank you.

This is a tribute and ruminations of my late papa, Daniel Chua. He was born on 27th Feb 1955, and he was called to the Lord on 24th May 2014 (59 years old). A tribute was created to him here.

20200810 Edited to add:

  1. I’ll miss you forever papa, 6 years after you passed away (and still counting the days and years). I still think about you often, especially now that I’m a dad myself, and gosh, fatherhood and husbandhood and overall succeeding and living a good and Godly life isn’t that easy, so much challenges. Oh well, I’ll do my best – till we meet again.
  2. His medical bill in Singapore was around SGD 120,000 in the end, and we raised a few thousand SGD which we are grateful for, and the rest was self paid. Hence my plea to all individuals in Singapore, Malaysia and around the world: buy good insurance that you can maintain (there’s only a few core ones that you need, such as hospitalization and critical illness ones especially), and do not discontinue it thinking that you never need it. Insurance is a “you-never-know-so-be-prepared-thingie”.


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