25-year-old Singaporean dies after Johor hospital demands cash before treatment

Hours after the accident, Justinian Tan was transported back to Singapore for treatment, but was declared brain-dead on Monday as too much time had passed.

justinian-tan


PETALING JAYA: A 25-year-old Singaporean died following a hit-and-run in Johor Bahru after the Sultanah Aminah Hospital there withheld treatment until family and friends paid cash up-front.
Justinian Ta

n was together with five of his friends when the incident took place last Friday. News reports said they had just finished having supper and were walking back to their car at about 3am when a Proton Saga collided into the group and sped off.
Tan and 24-year-old Brandon Yeo were hit. Singapore daily The Independent said Tan lost consciousness upon impact and was found convulsing, coughing out blood and struggling to breathe.
In the report, Tan’s friends said authorities were slow to respond, with the ambulance arriving only after 30 minutes despite the accident site being just 5km or nine minutes’ drive away according to Google Maps.
Local police who arrived at the scene did not bother to cordon off the site but told the friends to clean up the bloodstains on the road.
Upon Tan’s arrival at Sultanah Aminah Hospital, preliminary medical scans were withheld until friends and family offered to pay cash up-front.
One of the six friends who identified himself as Joshua was quoted as saying that they were asked to pay RM1,350 for each victim before further action would be taken.
As none of them was carrying that much cash, they were forced to find an ATM machine and withdraw the necessary amount.


Joshua said they paid the hospital RM2,700, following which hospital staff finally conducted scans on Tan and Yeo. It took another four hours before a prognosis was provided.
The last straw for the friends came at 8.30am, by which time five hours had passed since the accident. The hospital demanded another RM1,350, saying Tan needed surgery as “his brain was bleeding”.
Staff told the friends that the operation would be conducted by a medical officer, not a surgeon or consultant, and that he had only a 50% chance of survival.
At this point, the friends contacted the Singapore embassy which sent a private ambulance to bring the victims back to Singapore.
According to the report, the ambulance arrived at 10.45am. Tan was admitted to the Singapore General Hospital at noon.
However, doctors there told his family that nothing could be done as too much time had elapsed.
Tan was declared brain-dead at 5.56pm on Monday. On Wednesday, his parents took him off life support.
He was the second youngest of four children.
His sister, Jaslene, told The Independent that their mother had been worried about his trip to Johor as it was late at night.
“My brother, being a very happy, positive person, said: ‘Mum what are you afraid of? Nothing to be scared of’,” she was quoted as saying.