Case No. 1180 : The forgotten elderly, Wong Seng Lan living alone passed away of COVID-19 virus at home and was only discovered many days after his death. Therefore, we would like to ask everyone to donate to deal with Mr. Wong's funeral service.
78-year-old Wong Seng Lan passed away at least more than 4 days on the upper floor of the shop in the back street of RAWANG. As no one came to visit and lived alone, he was not discovered until the bad smell of the remains spread to the surrounding shops downstairs. When the police and medical staff arrived at the scene, there was already a place with decomposing water, and the condition is horrible. The hospital confirmed that the cause of death was infection with the COVID-19 virus. Therefore, his family members entrusted us to deal with Mr. Wong's funeral.
According to a news report in Sin Chew Daily, the backstreet merchants found that the smell was pervasive, and they only suspected that there were dead rats at the time. When the vendors realized that the smell was lingering, they suddenly realized that the 70-year-old elderly living alone in a shop had not been seen for many days. Therefore, they hurriedly called his relatives to open the door for checking, but it was too late. According to a female proprietor of the catering industry, the remains were an elderly who live alone, Mr. Wong, who had lived alone in the shop for many years due to his bad temper. Unexpectedly, he passed away lonely because everyone was afraid to visit him during the pandemic. Since they didn't dare to break the door, they had to look for his family members and finally found Mr. Wong's cousin and his wife to open the door. However, the condition of the remains was already horrible as soon as they arrived. News link: https://www.sinchew.com.my/content/content_2519127.html
As far as we know, the police and medical staff did not disclose any cause of death because they had not yet conducted inspections. After the news report, the hospital confirmed that Mr. Wong passed away from the COVID-19 virus. Our social worker also discovered that no one knew his condition until he passed away because he had not been in contact with relatives for many years, and had no one taking care of him as he was living alone. Since Mr. Wong passed away due to COVID-19, the hospital requested that the remains need to be handle as soon as possible. Therefore, his nephew, Mr. Tan, asked for our help and entrusted us to handle Mr. Wong's funeral.
According to the death report from the hospital, Mr. Wong Seng Lan passed away at home due to COVID-19 virus on July 26 (1.00 pm). An elderly living alone and passed away lonely is not the first case DaAi received. But because of the pandemic, the situation of being unable to ask for help and passed away alone at home made us very sad. Therefore, we hope that when the public finds the elderly living alone, and no one cares about them, please contact us in time to prevent such a sad situation from happening again.
We call upon everyone to donate for the funeral of Mr. Wong. Since the remains of COVID-19 were not allowed to be kept for long, we had to send the remains to be cremated immediately before any processes of the funeral. We must strictly abide by the SOP given by the Ministry of Health (KKM) to handle the whole process of his funeral, which included body transfer, cremation, memorial service, and ashes placement. However, due to the severe COVID-19 pandemic, the incinerators and hospitals are full and overloaded, so the cremation time needs to be scheduled for processing. Therefore, the remains were only able to be taken out for cremation July 31 (Saturday).
If anyone is interested in donation for the whole funeral service, kindly contact us for more information. Thank you. The late Mr. Wong’s ashes are currently placed at Jishantang Rawang strictly following the SOP for prayers on 2nd August 2021 (Monday). According to the family's request, Mr. Wong's ashes will be scattered into the sea on August 3 (Tuesday).
We would like to remind everyone no matter where you are, including when you go to get the vaccine, you must first protect yourself and be careful. Even after two doses of the vaccine are completed, the SOP must be strictly followed, because the virus is everywhere, and places with a lot of people are more dangerous. Take care and stay safe.
