Case No. 2394: Six-year-old Wong Shi Yang suffers from Severe Allergic Asthma and is frequently hospitalized. To help him cope more steadily with his upcoming primary school life, doctors have recommended four years of special medication injections to improve his lung condition, strengthen his resistance, and reduce the risk of recurrent infections and severe asthma attacks.
At present, he has to avoid crowded places, especially areas where there are sick people, and maintain good environmental hygiene to prevent bacterial infections in his lungs that could trigger an asthma attack and require emergency hospitalization. On one occasion, Shi Yang had to remain in the hospital for nearly a month.
[The hospital has become a familiar place.]
Shi Yang is particularly prone to severe asthma attacks. Whenever an attack occurs, he struggles to breathe, with his chest visibly heaving and his abdomen sinking inward, leaving his mother frightened and anxious. Every asthma attack is severe enough to require emergency hospitalization. His mother feels helpless because there is little, she can do apart from keeping the home as clean as possible in the hope of reducing the likelihood of another asthma attack.
Tan Lee Peng, 43 years old, is a single mother. She told the social worker that the most unforgettable incident happened when Shi Yang was three years old and hospitalized. In the middle of the night, his condition suddenly deteriorated. She received a call from the hospital in the early hours of the morning, and the doctor told her that her son had been in critical condition and was only saved after a minute of emergency resuscitation.
How could a mother sleep that night? She was terrified of losing her child. As she recalled the incident, tears welled up in her eyes.
[“Why are you giving me injections?”]
Doctors have advised that Shi Yang use oxygen in the morning and at night. Whenever he experiences difficulty breathing, he must immediately go to the hospital for examination. He also needs to receive preventive injections in both arms at the hospital every month. Shi Yang is afraid of injections and would cry loudly whenever he has to receive one. He even showed the social worker both of his arms.
He once asked his mother, “Why are you giving me injections?” These simple words left his mother heartbroken yet helpless.
More than anything, his mother hopes that her son can grow up healthy and strong.
Shi Yang once tried attending kindergarten, but he developed an infection that triggered an asthma attack and required hospitalization. Worried that he might fall behind in his studies, his mother arranged tuition for him this year. Unexpectedly, he was hospitalized again.
[Four years of medication costs are beyond the single mother’s means.]
In addition to caring for Shi Yang, Tan Lee Peng also has to care for her father, who has suffered a stroke. Her income from running a small stall is meagre and unstable. Faced with the substantial cost of his medication, she had no choice but to seek help from us.
After learning about Shi Yang’s situation, we have decided to raise RM57,297.60 to cover his special medication expenses for four years. We sincerely appeal to kind-hearted people across the country to make a donation and help share this appeal with others.
May the love and support from the community help Shi Yang carry his schoolbag and walk into the school campus, where he can learn and play happily alongside other children and grow up healthy and joyful.
