Man loses wife of 16 years, alleges private hospital was tardy in sending ambulance

JOHOR BARU: A 45-year-old quality control engineer is upset, claiming that a private hospital’s delay in responding to his request for an ambulance for his wife resulted in her death before the emergency vehicle arrived.

Ng Chin Heng said his 40-year-old wife, who was diagnosed with brain and lung cancer in June last year, was doing well and went for regular treatments in Petaling Jaya before the incident on Dec 15 this year.

He recalled arriving home in Taman Nusa Bestari 2 here on the evening of Dec 15 after work, and said that his wife was fine when they had a chat.

Shortly after, she vomited her dinner and Ng said he quickly called his wife’s private nurse, who had been visiting her weekly, for advice.

"When my wife started to experience breathing difficulties at around 9pm, her nurse suggested that we call for an ambulance from the private hospital.

"During my call with the hospital, the operator asked for my personal details, my wife’s personal details, the background of her illness and our home address.

"The operator also repeatedly mentioned that the ambulance fee was RM650 and asked whether I could afford it; I told her I was willing to pay any amount as long as my wife could be sent to the hospital immediately.

"Later, the hospital operator called me back to ask again whether I could pay the RM650 ambulance fee, and I got upset as I had spent five minutes confirming this earlier," he said in a press conference held here on Tuesday (Dec 28), adding that he had the phone record to back his claims.

Ng said he felt slightly relieved when he received a call from an ambulance driver about 10 minutes later, thinking that the vehicle had arrived at his housing area.

"However, I was surprised when the driver informed me that he was just getting ready to depart from the hospital and asked me to prepare RM650 for the ambulance charges.

"I got very upset because only they were slow in their actions, they kept harping on about the ambulance charges.

"A few minutes after I put down the phone, my wife was no longer breathing and we decided to cancel the private ambulance and called the Health Department instead," he said, adding that a Health Department officer later arrived and confirmed that his wife of 16 years had passed away.

Ng, who has three children aged 12 to 16, said he lodged a report about the matter with the Health Ministry, the police and the private hospital.

Pasir Gudang MCA public complaints and services deputy bureau chief Ang Tun Chek hoped that all healthcare organisations could look at the incident as a lesson to ensure that it would not be repeated in the future.

Meanwhile when contacted, the private hospital said it was informed about the matter and would be investigating it internally.