I seldom post too personal things about myself, but decided to post this time to shed some light about SG healthcare and risks as a Cabin Crew.
I had a bad on board accident, a passenger whacked the bag in from behind me while I was helping with the bag stowage. Her bag dragged my right hand into the overhead compartment, trapping my hand under her bag, and I was lifted off the ground as I was pulled upwards and inwards. All surrounding passengers who saw what happened were shocked to see my body dangling with my right hand trapped between the bag and the overhead compartment.
I screamed and cried immediately.
But the tall lady at 34D (if I didn’t remember wrongly) who caused this injury happily sat down without a tad of guilt. I thought I only injured my hand and wrist so I did cold compress and rested for the first meal service.
Feeling guilty for every crew who worked harder at a full load because of me, I helped out slightly at 2nd meal service.
After I landed, I went to CGH and saw an orthopedic who refused to listen to my story — he said, “I know every crew’s problem”, “all same problem la”, etc, and proceeded to inject 2 big steroid jabs on my shoulder. I felt better almost immediately and after 2 months of MC, I was back to flying. I didn’t know how bad things can be and I trusted that doctor will know what’s best for me.
But because of this incompetent doctor who did not do any single check for me, not even an x-ray, my medical report looks like a minor accident, and my workman compensation was a negligible $6k. If I was not injured and if I worked for the 2 months, I’d hv earned even more and need not suffer
I love flying, I love SIA too, I worked very hard to be the top crew, which I did — top 1% every year, gotten sommelier cert, and eventually ranked 6th!
As a result, I always get to choose off days without blackout dates as a top crew incentive, and I’m glad that I can choose the rarest off days on CNY to have reunion dinner with my family every year. I’ve never wanted to resign, I always aimed high and I wanted to don a green kebaya, it is a dream that cannot be fulfilled.
But I was always frustrated, always tired. I don’t understand why I work the same number of hours as others but my fatigue level is way more than my colleagues.
Just before a flight to 1 of my favourite destinations, Paris, a quarter of my body was paralysed. I rushed to PEH A&E, and my movement returned while waiting, the orthopedic on duty said I was too young to hv stroke, asked if I just want to *geng MC* (bluff my way thru for medical certificate)
I insisted to be hospitalized and insisted to have myself checked, and eventually diagnosed with a large cervical slipped disc.
Doctor apologized a few times for his assumption and mindless comment, but seriously, if I had not insisted, I would not have known what happened to me. So unprofessional.
My slipped disc is definitely from the accident but because there was no scan done at CGH after my accident, no doctor will certify the relationship of the 2 injuries for me, and I cannot get compensation from SIA insurance and MOM workmen compensation.
Eventually I resigned from the job I love.
I worked part time in a GP clinic opposite where I used to stay, while upgrading myself and hoping to recover by not giving myself physical work stress.
But I consistently buy strong painkillers, which kind of bothered my doctor. So he examined and found the pain was coming mainly from my shoulder. Did an MRI and there was a muscle tear, my shoulder muscle and tissue were “fraying”.
Last year, I did multiple surgeries to fix my muscle tear, resulting frozen shoulder, pain, fainting that broke my teeth, etc. I have multiple severe pain episodes from muscle spasm as well. Thankfully, I have good surgeons this time.
I never missed a physio session, because I’m more than keen to recover. By the end of 2019, I was ready to go back to the workforce and started going for interviews. Tried going back to SIA too but I was rejected due to medical reasons.
I found a full-time job and supposed to start after CNY2020, but it didn’t happen due to Covid19, employment froze.
Worse still, CB stopped my physio sessions because it’s considered “non-essential”, my swimming regime also halted. My pain came back despite doing physio exercises on my own. And now, I have to do disc replacement because I lost parts of my shoulder muscles entirely due to C5 pain. Parts of my shoulder are just skin and bones.
Many people think that being a cabin crew is fun and gorgeous, simple and bimbotic, but there are many risks involved. Please be kind to the crew and be more considerate. We are human too.
I must really thank AIA for honoring my policy and claims, having staff calling me to check on my wellbeing, giving me assurance so I don’t hv additional stress, offering help and making claiming process easy for me.
And thanks Ng Beng Lee Cfp for the help so far.
I’m not an insurance agent but I must really emphasize the importance of insurance. Please get one early so you can be covered fully, don’t wait and risk having exclusions. a.
I want to thank all family members and close friends for the support so far.
Big thank you to my husband for tolerating with my mood swings, and for helping me massage to relieve some pain.
Thank you to my class for “visiting” me via video conference since there r CB restrictions, thanks to technology for making this possible.
And I apologise to all the crew and all my friends whom I’ve offended before, I get frustrated very easily, thanks for bearing with me.
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CGH called me, they are sorry for what happened, and they will dig into the paper record in their storage and investigate. I told them I don’t want to cost the doctor his job, I just want him to know his negligence and complacency caused me so much pain and sufferings, and he should never do that to any other patient again.
I wanted to respond to everyone to thank you for the support, however I cannot do so anymore because Facebook detected my comments as “spam”, I cannot respond to any of you
Sorry, but thank you for the love and concern, I truly appreciate every single comment. I’ve just gotten out of ICU, my last surgery was yesterday (19Jun20) and I’m recovering well, all my surgeries so far have been successful
I wish to clarify that SIA had been fair to me, the compensation was all according to protocol and the hospital reports. They’ve covered for my medical bills for a year and paid me salary through my MC. As an organisation, it is not possible that they take pity on me and compensate me more without proper black and white. I can only blame myself for being unlucky that my medical report did not cover the full extent of my injury........
