How my first book came to be written

During my father's hospitalisation, I extended help to a young lady whose mother was receiving treatment in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU). She was grateful and encouraged me to write a handbook to help the family members of other patients. On the 28th day of my father's death (29 October 2008), my youngest brother also made a similar suggestion.

Boldly, I accepted my brother's idea to write and publish "What killed my dad?" while coping with the loss of my father. The most difficult part was to control my emotions and stay collected while writing the factual account of my father's last illness, and penning my thoughts objectively to benefit my readers. Being an accountant by profession, I am used to working under pressure and meeting tight reporting deadlines, and hence I gave myself six weeks to complete and launch my book on 9 January 2009 to mark the 100th day of my father's death. The soonest I published my book, it would help those people who are unfortunately caught in the same plight. True enough, I received the following request to buy my book even before it was officially launched.

"My family had a very bad experience at a public hospital resulting in my mother's death and I am in the midst of writing to MOH. I would need to purchase your book urgently."

A copy of "What killed my dad?" was sent to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in order to account for Cancerstory.com becoming a dormant website on 9 January 2009. However, PM Lee's motivational message to cancer patients remained intact on the dormant site.

Complimentary copies were also accepted by Nanyang Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and ITE College East. Hopefully it will provide some helpful materials for their nursing courses.

Indeed, I am glad to receive orders from doctors, nursing students and other healthcare workers in public hospitals that give me hope of possible healthcare reform in public hospitals.

About this second book

The purpose of writing this second book is to share my father's sad experience in depth with those passionate healthcare workers who are keen to use it for teaching purposes in medical and nursing schools, and patient safety workshops/seminars, and also to provide an update on the Hospital's reply to my 14-page letter dated 25 October 2008.

It was uncanny that the long awaited letter finally arrived on Qing Ming, 4 April 2009. Sadly, it turned out to be a disappointing reply from the Hospital. Instead of giving me a full account of my father's death, it opened up more doubts when I spotted stark errors in their letter. In order to set their records right, I wrote a follow-up letter to them on 8 April 2009 (refer Chapter 2).

Indeed, this year's Qing Ming was a sad day for me. At my father's grave, I noticed he was "surrounded" by mostly dead people who had lived a "long-life", including one centenarian. After returning to my second brother's home from the cemetery, my sister-in-law shared a recent incident where a "stranger" inquired about my father's well-being as she no longer sees the familiar sight of my father who would stroll along the walkway behind their house. Actually, she is no stranger but a resident living a few streets apart without knowing that my father had passed away six months ago. Indeed, it was a sudden death. This goes to show the vulnerability of human life. My parents faced up to their mortality bravely and had left behind important lessons for their descendants; to practise the five virtues advocated by Chinese sages: compassion (仁), righteousness (义), humility (礼), wisdom (智) and trustworthiness (信).

Lee Soh Hong FCCA