Teen needs ventilator to go home

Missing home: Shah Fee lying on his bed at Duchess of Kent Hospital in Sandakan, Sabah, yesterday.

SANDAKAN: An ailing 15-year-old Shah Fee Juman is staring out of the window from his hospital bed, longing for his family and wondering when can he return home to be with his six siblings and mother. Immobilized and consequently bedridden, Shah Fee has been connected to a ventilator machine since December last year.

For him to realise his aspirations, as simple as it may sound, to be with his loved ones at the comfort of his home, Shah Fee does not have a choice but to get a ventilator, meaning he would need to fork out a staggering RM40,000. He suffers from severe kypho­scoliosis, a musculo-skeletal disorder which causes chronic under-ventilation of the lungs, and is warded in the Intensive Care Unit of the Duchess of Kent Hospital here.

The once active student of SMK Sukau has had to put his studies on hold because of his condition. Missing home: Shah Fee lying on his bed at Duchess of Kent Hospital in Sandakan, Sabah, yesterday. As if the hardship was not enough of a burden, Shah Fee lost his father last year. Now, his family depends on his aunt who works as a cook in one of the holiday resorts along the Kinabatangan River for financial support.

According to hospital director Dr Zorina Khalid, doctors have been trying to wean him off oxygen so he can breathe through his trachea and a home ventilator which runs on room air. “Shah Fee can only be discharged and head home if he has a home ventilator,” she said. 

His mother Noraini Bikong said she had no means to raise money to buy the home ventilator. “I miss him and his siblings miss him, too, but we have no choice but to pray for help to bring him home,” she said.She hoped Kinabatangan MP Dat­­uk Bung Mokhtar Radin and Sukau State Assemblyman Saddi Abdul Rahman could help Shah Fee return home.

Source: The Star 06 June 2011