|
I encountered a case just a few days ago.
 The ambulance had picked up a man in his 70s lying unconscious by the roadside at Jalan Bukit Merah. He was suffering from bleeding in the brain and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at Singapore General Hospital.
As he was unconscious, we could not get any information from him.
He had nothing to identify him either – no identity card, wallet or handphone. All he had by his side when he was picked up were two packets of food.
Since he was found at Jalan Bukit Merah where there are lots of rented flats, my first thought was that he had gone out to pack food for his wife, who could be bedridden at home. I was worried about the old man’s wife. I also wondered if he had children and if they knew he was missing.
Every month, about six elderly Singaporeans die without next-of-kin (NOK) to claim their bodies. (See report here.)
Here at the Medical Social Workers (MSW) department at SGH where I work, it is our responsibility to establish patients' identities and trace their NOK with the help of the police.
If a NOK cannot be found to claim the body, we source for a charitable undertaker for the body to be cremated according to religious rites.
With no information on the name and address of the old man picked up at Bukit Merah, we were unable to call his neighbouring social services centres or voluntary welfare organisations, nor could we conduct a home visit, or go around asking if anyone knew him.
While we were discussing what we could do, the nurses informed us that his blood pressure had dipped and he could pass on at any time.
We immediately called the police to request for finger-printing to establish his identity, and shared our concerns and fears that he could have been packing food for his wife when he was found unconscious.
Fortunately, the police were able to identify the old man and they managed to contact his brother who in turn contacted the old man's son. The old man passed on shortly after his son, who he had not seen in 20 years, arrived.
We found out the old man stayed alone in a rented flat and worked as a hawker assistant at the neighbouring coffee shop. He had finished work that day and had packed all the leftover food into a tingkat and two lunch boxes, before making his way home.
The food was supposed to be his dinner, a dinner he never had.
I don’t watch “emo”, teary dramas on TV as I’m already dealing with too many emotions at work every day. I find it difficult to take the emotions home and watch something that will remind me of my patients and their problems. There is just too much daily emotional burden to bear.
My job has taught me that life is too short to look back. You can only move forward and live each day like there is no tomorrow. To be able to help others is also a blessing.
Alicia Tan is a Senior Medical Social Worker with Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and a registered social worker with the Singapore Association of Social Workers. She manages Carelink, SGH's one-stop referral centre providing discharge planning for patients and their caregivers, and also works with survivors of elder abuse and domestic violence. |