Shocking reply from UMMC

22/10/2008 16:04

Thank you for your letter.

The picture of Lau Sian Yee that you send was of grave concern to us. There is very strong possibility that he might have leukemia coming back to affect his testis causing it to be swollen.

This is very early relapse and the chance of cure again is only 20-40%. I am quite sure that none of my doctors/colleagues would have told his mother that this was side-effect of leukemia treatment.

looking back at his treatment chart, I noted that the last time we saw Sian Yee was on 25th June 2008, which means that he has not attended his 2 weekly follow up for the last 4 months.
his treatment was due to complete only at the end of 2008.

After many attempts I managed to talk to Sian Yee's mother today. She was very argumentative and aggressive and refused to listen to me or to bring Sian Yee back to the hospital.

Under such circumstance, i do not know what else I could do. Mutual trust between doctors and patients/parents and good family/parental support are important ingredients for successful treatment. In Sian Yee's case, I regret that this is lacking.

Yours sincerely