Nursing home resident claims he was abused

[MarrickG]

SINGAPORE - He had checked into a nursing home for some rest and recovery, but he claims he got neither. Now, all he wants is to move to another ward.

Mr Kelvin Tan, who is in his late 40s and is wheelchair-bound, claimed he has been verbally and even physically abused by fellow residents at the Orange Valley Nursing Home at Clementi.

He alleged a fellow resident hit him with a portable electric fan.

Another threatened to poison him, he claimed.

Both these claims could not be verified.

"I live in fear every day. Those who are in the same room as me, I think they're mentally ill.

"They scold people randomly and even hit them," Mr Tan told The New Paper in Mandarin last week.

Mr Tan said he used to sell fengshui products such as crystals in Malaysia.

Some three years ago, he fell while showering and injured his spine.

After becoming wheelchair-bound, he lived with his younger sister here before moving into the nursing home six months ago.

He said that because of some domestic problems, he had to move to the nursing home.

He also said that he is undergoing dialysis because of kidney failure.

Mr Tan claimed that on the second day of his stay at the nursing home, one resident, who was in his 60s, took Mr Tan's electric fan and, for no reason, hit him with it.

"I was lying on the bed when the resident took my fan and hit me repeatedly with it," he said. Mr Tan claimed he lodged a police report, but no action was taken against the resident.

On a different occasion, he claimed another resident hit him after he switched the TV channels. Said Mr Tan: "I've been having sleepless nights here."

He said he had asked to be given sleeping pills, but was refused.

"If this continues, I will go crazy like them," he said.