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Mummy and daddy are in jail. Aunt and uncle look after her. Her family finds out six-year-old has heart infection after she falls ill
 LITTLE Lisa’s parents have been in and out of jail since she was born. The girl was left in the care of her grandmother, who was over 70 years old at the time. Her aunt and uncle took pity on her and decided to take over the responsibility of caring for her from her grandmother, who suffers from dementia and has since moved into anold folks’ home. Lisa was just over a year old when her aunt and uncle, who wanted to be known only as Madam Ho and Mr Chong, took her home and cared for her like theirownchild. Over the years, Lisa has grown so attached to the couple that she now calls them “papa” and“mummy”. Sadly, Lisa, who is now six, is facing a life-and-death situation. On Monday, she had a fever and Madam Ho, 48, took her to see a doctor. Lisa, who is in Primary 1, did not attend school that day and Madam Ho, a clerk, stayed at home to take care of the little girl. “I was very worried when she started vomiting, even though her temperature went down after she took the medicine,” Madam Ho told The New Paper in Mandarin yesterday.
The next day, she took Lisa to see the doctor again. She said: “She was still vomiting. I fed her the medicine and she threw up right after that. I was very worried and called the doctor to inform him of her condition. “The doctor told me to feed her the medicine again and that if she threw up again, I should send her to the hospital.” Madam Ho followed the doctor’s instructionsand monitored Lisa closely. Lisa stopped vomiting and slept through that night. But just when Madam Ho thought Lisa was getting better, she found the little girl covered in cold sweat the next morning. “Her hands and legs were so chilled. I was so scared when I saw that her face was so pale,” said Madam Ho, who rushed Lisa to the National University Hospital (NUH). “The doctors took her X-ray and told me that she has a heart infection and her heart was swelling.
She is suffering from myocarditis. “She was taken to the Intensive Care Unit immediately. Her heart function is now being supported by a machine and the doctors told us that she needs to be observed for four to five days.” Myocarditis is a condition where the muscular walls of the heart become inflamed and typically results in poor heart function. The inflammation may eventually lead to weakening and dilation of the heart muscle, causing severe heart failure. Madam Ho added: “We were told that Lisa had to be given medication to help her sleep for the next few days to let her heart rest. “She complained of pain from the insertion of the needles and tubes onher hands.” Mr Chong, 50, a businessman, said: “It is very painful for us to watch her in agony.
Like their own child
“She is such an adorable child. My children love her andwetreat her like our own. “She seldom asks about her parents. When she does, we tell her that her parents are overseas as we do not want to hurt her feelings.” Mr Chong and his wife, who have two children, aged 17 and 15, said they don’t know how long Lisa’s parents will be in jail. In the past, her father had been in jail for selling contraband cigarettes and her mother for drug consumption, said MadamHo. Mr Chong said: “Lisa is very chatty and active... She is very likeable. “Initially, she stayed with us only on weekends and my mother-in-law took care of her during the weekdays. “Gradually, she didn’t want to return to her grandmother’s home and has been living with my family since.” The couple had no problems caring for Lisa until she needed to be registered for Primary 1 last year. Then, they realised that they were unable to do so as they are not her legal guardians. They informed the Ministry of Education about Lisa’s situation and managed to get her a place in a neighbourhood school. Mr Chong recalled: “Last May, about the same time as the school registration, she fell very sick and we were on the verge of sending her to the hospital. “Since we are not her legal guardians, there are many things that we can’t decide for her. And it’s not easy to have access to her parents who are both in jail.”
The couple sought help from their Member of Parliament, Mr Alvin Yeo, of Chua Chu Kang GRC, who referred them to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. “We were advised to engage a lawyer to help us apply for the guardianship of Lisa,” said Mr Chong. The couple then got a lawyer to apply for her guardianship, but the case is still pending. Since Lisa’s admission to NUH on Wednesday, the couple have been facing problems in making the medical claims to cover Lisa’s medical expenses. Mr Chong said: “We are told that her father’s signature is required for the claims, but we don’t know how we can get that. “We have managed to get the doctor to write to the Singapore Prison Service to inform her parents about her condition.” Mr Chong said he was told by medical workers that Lisa’s parents were escorted by prison officers to visit Lisa at the hospital yesterday morning. He said: “My wife and I were not around when they came. I was told that they came separately and stayed for about 30 minutes.” But Lisa slept through their visits.
70 percent survival rate here
BETWEEN January 1997 and November 2004, 28 patients with myocarditis were identified and the case records were reviewed in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. The hospital’s Dr Chen Ching Kit, Dr Tan Teng Hong and Associate Professor Wong Keng Yean presented a report on a retrospective series of cases of myocarditis at the 5th World Congress of Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery in Cairns, Australia, in 2009. The results showed the patients were aged between two months and 14 years 5 months, with 71 per cent of them requiring admission to the children’s intensive care unit. Of the four patients who required brain oxygenation, two survived, with one having reduced cardiac function. Six patients needed cardiac pacing for atrioventricular block. Only one required a permanent pacemaker subsequently. Mortality rate was 30 per cent and 75 per cent of survivors went on to have normal cardiac function upon recovery.
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