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Dressing the wounds, healing the heart
 At Home Nursing Foundation, we know from experience that people cope with hardship and poverty in different ways. Some people remain undefeated by whatever life has thrown at them while others have great difficulty recovering.
For Lee Sing Sai, life has been a series of hardship and misfortune from the time he was a young boy. He is now 76 years and slowly recovering from being hit by a car while crossing the street. He lives alone and appears to have no friends or family support. He hides his despair behind a well-constructed mask of bitterness.
Nurse Susan from HNF visits him to dress the wound he suffered after being knocked down by a taxi. The fracture had healed, but the surface wound had become infected and was worsening. Until Susan began visiting him at home, the wound was not healing properly because Lee Sing Sai was unable to give it the proper care.
His health situation has much improved since Susan began her visits, but he remains a woefully, unhappy figure. In conversation, it becomes clear that Lee Sing Sai has never recovered from a blow suffered some 60 years ago.
When Lee Sing Sai was only 12 years, he was a ‘fourth young master’ in a wealthy family from Malaysia. However his father, whose business was devastated during the Japanese occupation in the Second World War, committed suicide, and changed young Lee Sing Sai’s life forever.
The family was left destitute and young Lee Sing Sai lost his security and status as a privileged ‘fourth young master’. With only a Primary 3 education, he turned to begging on the streets to help the family. He has held many different jobs throughout his life, from food stall assistant to gravedigger. He eventually had to stop working after an injury on the job when he was in his 60s.
Then he was hit by the car. After being hospitalised, he was sent home with his instructions on how to change his dressings. He was given a second-hand wheelchair to use. On a checkup with his doctor, though, it became apparent that he desperately needed help—even though he was too proud ask. The doctor prudently put in a call to HNF.
Nurse Susan is about the only company he receives. He admits that he isn’t friendly but he gruffly adds that Nurse Susan does a good job for him, and he is lucky that she comes to change his dressings.
Sometimes in treating the short-term ailment, we help with the long-term affliction as well, with a caring face and a pair of gentle hands.
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