Help bring my father home

My father, Aaron Tang, recently turned 73 (3 Dec). I am thankful that we are able to celebrate his birthday, considering what he has been through for the last two months.

Breakdown of Events

(1 Oct) Admitted via ambulance to NUH (National University Hospital) for a stroke at 5am in the morning. He has slurred speech and is unable to move the right side of his body.

(10 Oct) Transferred to RCCH (Ren Ci Community Hospital) to work on stroke rehabilitation. He was slated to be there for a month before discharge.

(29 Oct) Transferred to TTSH (Tan Tock Seng Hospital) after complaining of severe chest pains for 4 days in a row. He was diagnosed with Shingles and placed on a round of anti-viral medication to stop the spread. To this day, he is still suffers from throbbing pain in the nerves near his chest area.

(15 Nov) Transferred back to RCCH to resume stroke rehabilitation.

(16 Nov) Tested Covid-19 positive and was placed in an isolation for 7 days.

(23 Nov) Transferred back to normal ward to resume stroke rehabilitation.

(6 Dec) Severe nausea with inability to eat or drink, including mediations. Suspected reasons include constipation (less likely) as he was supposed to remove kidney stones before his stroke or the increase in pain meds for his Shingles. He is immediately taken off the pain meds and put on drip.

(9 Dec) RCCH doctor refers him to a Pain Management Specialist who recommends a small procedure that includes two injections to block and reduce inflammation of the nerves.

(16 Dec) As nausea and pain is still on-going, the specialist declares my father has a non-responsive patient. They suspect that the nerves affected by the Shingles are not inflamed but are dead. He is placed on a low dosage of different pain meds as only pain meds will help to rejuvenate the nerves. It is unclear if the nerve damage is permanent as only time will tell and the recommendation is to wait 4 months. He will be transferred to another Chronic Pain Management Specialist.

Aftercare Arrangements

My father will only be discharged once there is a clear and sustainable way to manage his pain from Shingles. Once he is discharged, he will only have one physiotherapy session per week at RCCH.

With stroke patients, it is important for rehabilitation to be frequent and consistent in the first few month for full recovery. As he has lost valuable time due to his complication from Shingles and Covid-19, we are raising funds to engage external physiotherapy sessions with Homage.

Without going into too much detail about my complicated and turbulent family background, Auntie Maureen (my father's sister) has kindly offered to take my father in for 6 months at her residence.

My father dedicated his entire life to teaching. Thankfully, he is still lucid and spends his days sharing about each and every student with me. He taught in ITE for 50 years before his retirement – some of his ex-students are older than I am. He goes above and beyond his responsibilities as a teacher, and personally purchased instruments to set up a school band to encourage, uplift and inspire them.

I believe this link will mostly be sent amongst my own friends. But whoever you are – an ex-student of his, a friend from church – if you feel compelled to give, we are immensely grateful for whatever help we receive. These funds will go into making a difference in the quality of his remaining life.