'It feels like I married a different person': Husband of woman in e-scooter accident

2018: The strain of caring for Ang has taken its toll on Leong and the family. He earns about $1,000 plus and spends about $2,000 a month on his wife's medicine, therapy bills and the maid's salary. While the financial burden is heavy, it is the struggle to understand his wife - she has not recovered the ability to speak audibly - that weighs most on Mr Leong.ST PHOTO: ZAIHAN MOHAMED YUSOF.

He misses his wife's smile and her sociable personality. He remembers her cheerful confidence when she played cards with her friends.

Now, it seems as if Leong Loon Wah, 55, is living with a stranger who keeps her thoughts to herself.

His wife, Ang Liu Kiow, 55, was involved in a collision with an electric scooter ridden by a 17-year-old boy in September 2016.

The incident left her in a coma for a month with severe head injuries.

The Active Mobility Advisory Panel recently proposed that e-scooters be registered, and Leong, an odd-job labourer, said it was a welcome move that could make e-scooter owners more accountable.

But for him, the effort comes too late, he told The Sunday Times yesterday at their four-room flat in Pasir Ris.

Leong said in Mandarin: "I can understand the need for alternative forms of transportation. The fact is, on that day of the collision, we were unlucky.

"There's no insurance coverage and it was a youth who was involved... I didn't ask to be in this position. And nobody should be in this position too."

The teen was charged in October last year with causing grievous hurt to Ang when riding his e-scooter along a pavement in front of a bus stop in Pasir Ris Drive 1.

Remarkably, Ang, a housewife, was well enough to be discharged from hospital just before Christmas 2016.

Her condition has now improved slightly, said her son, Wilson Leong, 24.

Ang's right hand is limp due to a stroke she suffered from her head injuries and her gait remains unnatural.

"At least now, she can walk a little," said Wilson, who has just started working as an intern. "Most times, we bring the wheelchair along so that my mother doesn't tire herself."

Ang can use her left hand to feed herself or pick up a mug.

Family members or the maid will watch over her whenever she tries to walk.

Ang's speech remains inaudible and slurred. She can utter only simple words like "yes" or "no" in Mandarin.

Most times, Leong and his three children - Wilson, a teenaged son and a daughter in her 20s - rely on Ang's hand gestures or facial expression to guess what she is asking for.

While few things these days put a smile on Leong's face, he remembers being proud of his wife when she was in therapy class.

"She wrote down some numbers and also spelt her name in English using her left hand. While she recognises us, it troubles me not to know what goes through her mind," he said.

Leong had said in a Straits Times report in 2016 that his family was not angry but was glad to have Ang back home. After all, doctors had said her chances of survival were slim. But the reality now is harsher for the Leongs.

The strain of looking after Ang and the prospect of shouldering a long-term financial burden may be getting to Leong.

His sleep is also interrupted most nights because he has to help his wife to the toilet as the medication she takes causes bowel movements at night.

Nevertheless, the family is thankful for the subsidies and financial grants it has received, which helped pay for the medical bills.

"Even strangers have donated some money to us," said Wilson. "Still, my father worries about money."

Leong said it was frustrating to think about money.

He earns about $1,000 (RM2,969) plus and spends about $2,000 (RM5,938) a month on his wife's medicine, therapy bills and the maid's salary, topping up the deficit with his savings. "Another $600 (RM1,781) is spent on my son's polytechnic education. I don't earn much as a labourer."

To date, Leong said he has spent close to $60,000 (RM178,140) of his own money.

Twice a week, he takes his wife to therapy classes or to see a doctor.

Despite his worries, Leong does not talk about money in front of his wife. When he is at home, he helps with her meals and switches on the TV for her.

"It's sad that she can't remember and talk about anything about the past," said Leong, who has been married for more than 30 years.

"It feels like I have now married a different person." – The Straits Times/Asia News Network