- Joined
- Jul 24, 2008
- Messages
- 33,627
- Points
- 0
Today 05:59 PM#1TopSageReturns
Senior Member
<dl class="userinfo_extra"><dt>Join Date</dt> <dd>Aug 2012</dd><dt>Posts</dt> <dd>318</dd></dl>
[h=2]Death of A Singaporean Son - Dominique Lee[/h]
Senior Member
<dl class="userinfo_extra"><dt>Join Date</dt> <dd>Aug 2012</dd><dt>Posts</dt> <dd>318</dd></dl>
[h=2]Death of A Singaporean Son - Dominique Lee[/h]
I want to share with you this letter posted in TREmeritus written by a Singaporean about his friend Dominique Lee who lost his life while serving NS. When MINDEF sent the condolence letter, they didn't even bother to spell Dominique Lee's name correctly.
We know that Singaporean lives in the economic sense are expendable but at least some respect has to be shown for those who died serving the nation.
-------------
Back in April 2012, my friend, Dominique Lee passed away while serving in SAF. I’m sure you have heard or wrote a story about his death. However, since his death, his family has taken on a wild goose chase by the government and they have decided to take things into their own hands.
I am contacting you on behalf of my friend’s mother hoping that you will do a story so that we can gain some awareness and support from the Singapore community as this will affect every son, brother, nephew or boyfriend.
We do not want more deaths to occur especially with MINDEF’s level of ignorance. In August, my friend’s mum received a letter from them instructing her already dead son to collect his SAF CARD! This clearly tells us that every NS death is just a number to them and how insensitive the government is to his family by rubbing salt in their wounds!
Also, when he died, Defence Minister Ng Eng Han ‘wrote’ a condolence letter to his mother and guess what, THEY SPELT HIS NAME WRONG. I hope that you will take the time to read what my friend’s mum has to say so we can garner support from the Singapore online community and tell the government that we demand action and not just words.
Once again, I’d like to thank all for taking the time to read this. His mother has drafted up a note to be shared. You can find a note written by his mother here:
From Felicia Seah (Dominique Lee’s Mum):
I am a mother of 2 Singaporean sons. My sons are my world. My elder son was enlisted into the SAF November last year. On 17 April 2012, I received a call from the hospital that my son had been admitted to the A&E. When I arrived at the hospital, I was told that my son had died from respiratory failure. In that instance, my world collapsed.It is clear to my family and me that my son’s death was preventable. He was asthmatic. The incident that cost him his life was an urban training exercise involving smoke bombs in a confined area.
However, it is not his death I wish to discuss here. The issue I wish to present to you is that of safety regulations in the SAF. I am urging all parents of Singaporean sons to stand with me, to advocate for greater accountability on the part of the SAF for the safety of our sons. We cannot be mere bystanders when our sons are conscripted into NS. We cannot allow for our sons to be at the mercy of the training officers, be it the platoon sergeants or commanders, who are very often, little older and none the wiser than the boys they are tasked to oversee, boys whose lives often depend on the decisions that they make.
I do not wish my tragedy on anyone and I do not want my son’s untimely death to go into the books of MINDEF as just another accident. Parents, I urge you to join me, so that MINDEF may hear our collective voice, and be moved to do more than pay lip service to ensure that our sons come back home alive and well.
Together, let’s call for:
1. More thorough screening of the medical history of NSF pre-enlistment, to ensure accurate fitness classification.
2. More stringent risk assessment of every training exercise.
3. Better equipped medical centres with better trained medical staff at/near every training location.
4. More stringent monitoring of staff who oversee NSF, to weed out abuse of power at all levels.
5. Greater accountability by MINDEF and SAF to all parents.
Parents, let us stand together to protect our sons and keep our families intact.
Let us bring our sons home safe!
Kindly share this message with friends, relatives or anyone that you know.
.
Felicia Seah
(Dominique Lee’s Mum)
.
History:
According to the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), Lee experienced breathing difficulties at 12.30pm. Three minutes later, he lost consciousness. A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) medic attended to him immediately.
At 12.46pm, he was evacuated via a safety vehicle to Sungei Gedong Medical Centre, where an SAF doctor attended to him at 12.52pm.
At 1.03pm, he was conveyed in an ambulance to the National University Hospital (NUH), with an SAF doctor continuing to resuscitate him en route to the hospital.
Lee arrived at the NUH at 1.22pm. He was pronounced dead at 2.05pm.
When a death occurs it is difficult to put the blame entirely on any one person, however it is owed to us that ourselves, sons, brothers and boyfriends are provided enough support when being forced to serve NS. Many deaths are preventable, and both SAF and MINDEF must acknowledge this and work towards preventing such tragedies from occurring.
Help to share this message with your friends and family so that the government can recognise that IT IS an important issue that needs more extra attention.
.
On behalf of Felicia Seah
We know that Singaporean lives in the economic sense are expendable but at least some respect has to be shown for those who died serving the nation.
-------------
Back in April 2012, my friend, Dominique Lee passed away while serving in SAF. I’m sure you have heard or wrote a story about his death. However, since his death, his family has taken on a wild goose chase by the government and they have decided to take things into their own hands.
I am contacting you on behalf of my friend’s mother hoping that you will do a story so that we can gain some awareness and support from the Singapore community as this will affect every son, brother, nephew or boyfriend.
We do not want more deaths to occur especially with MINDEF’s level of ignorance. In August, my friend’s mum received a letter from them instructing her already dead son to collect his SAF CARD! This clearly tells us that every NS death is just a number to them and how insensitive the government is to his family by rubbing salt in their wounds!
Also, when he died, Defence Minister Ng Eng Han ‘wrote’ a condolence letter to his mother and guess what, THEY SPELT HIS NAME WRONG. I hope that you will take the time to read what my friend’s mum has to say so we can garner support from the Singapore online community and tell the government that we demand action and not just words.
Once again, I’d like to thank all for taking the time to read this. His mother has drafted up a note to be shared. You can find a note written by his mother here:
From Felicia Seah (Dominique Lee’s Mum):
I am a mother of 2 Singaporean sons. My sons are my world. My elder son was enlisted into the SAF November last year. On 17 April 2012, I received a call from the hospital that my son had been admitted to the A&E. When I arrived at the hospital, I was told that my son had died from respiratory failure. In that instance, my world collapsed.It is clear to my family and me that my son’s death was preventable. He was asthmatic. The incident that cost him his life was an urban training exercise involving smoke bombs in a confined area.
However, it is not his death I wish to discuss here. The issue I wish to present to you is that of safety regulations in the SAF. I am urging all parents of Singaporean sons to stand with me, to advocate for greater accountability on the part of the SAF for the safety of our sons. We cannot be mere bystanders when our sons are conscripted into NS. We cannot allow for our sons to be at the mercy of the training officers, be it the platoon sergeants or commanders, who are very often, little older and none the wiser than the boys they are tasked to oversee, boys whose lives often depend on the decisions that they make.
I do not wish my tragedy on anyone and I do not want my son’s untimely death to go into the books of MINDEF as just another accident. Parents, I urge you to join me, so that MINDEF may hear our collective voice, and be moved to do more than pay lip service to ensure that our sons come back home alive and well.
Together, let’s call for:
1. More thorough screening of the medical history of NSF pre-enlistment, to ensure accurate fitness classification.
2. More stringent risk assessment of every training exercise.
3. Better equipped medical centres with better trained medical staff at/near every training location.
4. More stringent monitoring of staff who oversee NSF, to weed out abuse of power at all levels.
5. Greater accountability by MINDEF and SAF to all parents.
Parents, let us stand together to protect our sons and keep our families intact.
Let us bring our sons home safe!
Kindly share this message with friends, relatives or anyone that you know.
.
Felicia Seah
(Dominique Lee’s Mum)
.
History:
According to the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), Lee experienced breathing difficulties at 12.30pm. Three minutes later, he lost consciousness. A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) medic attended to him immediately.
At 12.46pm, he was evacuated via a safety vehicle to Sungei Gedong Medical Centre, where an SAF doctor attended to him at 12.52pm.
At 1.03pm, he was conveyed in an ambulance to the National University Hospital (NUH), with an SAF doctor continuing to resuscitate him en route to the hospital.
Lee arrived at the NUH at 1.22pm. He was pronounced dead at 2.05pm.
When a death occurs it is difficult to put the blame entirely on any one person, however it is owed to us that ourselves, sons, brothers and boyfriends are provided enough support when being forced to serve NS. Many deaths are preventable, and both SAF and MINDEF must acknowledge this and work towards preventing such tragedies from occurring.
Help to share this message with your friends and family so that the government can recognise that IT IS an important issue that needs more extra attention.
.
On behalf of Felicia Seah
