how much is the price of a life ?
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'Greater accountability needed from SAF'
by Tan Weizhen 04:45 AM Sep 18, 2012
SINGAPORE - Her son, Lee Rui Feng Dominique Sarron had died in April in a military training exercise. Last week, Madam Felicia Seah wrote an open letter - which was posted on a Facebook page set up in memory of her 21-year-old son - urging \"all parents of Singaporean sons to stand with me, to advocate for greater accountability\" from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) \"for the safety of our sons\".
Recalling how her world \"collapsed\" when she learnt of her son's death, Mdm Seah claimed it would have been averted if his superiors had paid heed to his condition.
\"It is clear to my family and me that my son's death was preventable. He was asthmatic. The incident that cost him his life was an urban training exercise involving smoke bombs in a confined area,\" said Mdm Seah.
As of yesterday, the impassioned letter was shared on the social networking site more than 280 times and was \"liked\" by more than 900 users.
Among other things, it called for \"more thorough screening\" of the medical history of enlistees and \"more stringent monitoring of staff who oversee (full-time national servicemen), to weed out abuse of power at all levels\".
Mdm Seah wrote: \"We cannot allow for our sons to be at the mercy of the training officers ... who are very often little older and none the wiser than the boys they are tasked to oversee, boys whose lives often depend on the decisions that they make.\"
The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) is awaiting the findings of its investigations. In response to TODAY's queries, MINDEF Director Public Affairs, Colonel Kenneth Liow, said that the ministry and the SAF \"would like to again express our deepest condolences to Mdm Seah and her family\" on Mr Lee's death.
MINDEF's Family Liaison Officer \"has been in regular contact\" with Mdm Seah and her family, and the SAF \"remains committed to assisting the family and providing them the necessary support during this difficult time\", Col Liow said.
Stressing that safety is a top priority for MINDEF and the SAF, he added: \"Every incident resulting in injury or death is painful to us and gets top management attention. We will learn from every incident to continually improve our safety system to ensure high standards of training safety.\"
Last month, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen announced that MINDEF is conducting a broad review of its medical support system, including its Medical Classification and Screening System.
Cardiologist Leslie Lam told TODAY that the screening should involve ultrasound scanning of the hearts of enlistees. This would identify underlying conditions which a normal electro-cardiogram (ECG) - currently a part of the screening system - would not pick up.
However, each ultrasound scanner costs about S$250,000 and Dr Clarence Yeo, a general practitioner, pointed out that cost could be an issue.
Still, he agreed that more needs to be done in screening certain parts of the body, such as the respiratory system and muscular-skeletal structure.
http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120918-0000034/Greater-accountability-needed-from-SAF -
we spent millions and millions every where with questionable necessity and sting on $250k ? what kind of warped logic do we have in the gov’t ? it is not even 10% of the PM’s salary. What cost ?
if we really value life, what is $250k ? or even a few of $250k ?
it is just 3 pieces of COE -
MINDEF consistent response when asked dis question is dat it is a matter of policy not to reveal d payout.
If u know wat d payout is, there is likely to be public disbelief n possible public outcry :whut: -
Way2GO:
probably not even one peanutMINDEF consistent response when asked dis question is dat it is a matter of policy not to reveal d payout.
If u know wat d payout is, there is likely to be public disbelief n possible public outcry :whut: -
I picked up dis post fr a Mr. Phillip Phay in http://therealsingapore.com/content/saf-insensitive-towards-deceased-nsfs-family
In March 2010, my son, Wesley Phay, 17, a former GEP student who is diagnosed with severe suicidal depression by the MOH-IMH Child Guidance Clinic's Senior Consultant, was due to have his enlistment medical check-up. He has expressed much anxiety about serving his National Service due to his severe depression, and I contacted CMPB to request for a one-to-one evaluation by the Mindef Psychiatrist to determine his status before the medical check-up, citing his severe depression. Not only did the staff at CMPB take it very lightly, they insisted that he should attend the medical check-up 'just like everybody else\". I think that their attitude is that these boys are just a number to them, not a human being, not somebody's precious son. On 22 March, the day of my son's medical check-up, he committed suicide. I will never forget that day. Worse of all, when I was at the mortuary to collect my son's body, CMPB staff kept calling me to ask if my son is going to report for the medical check-up, and threatening to issue a summon to make him report. When I scolded them that they didn't even flag out this case as special-illness case as I had requested, but just any other case, and that my son had committed suicide and I was at the mortuary, they only said \"Oh\" and hung up. No apologies whatsoever! Heartless bastards. I had wanted to write to Mindef at that time, but didn't do so because of the funeral and the grief we were all suffering. This article brought back those painful moments. And I decided to post this. Please keep up the pressure to the Mindef, SAF, Home Team, Civil Defence, and to pressure them to take serious precautions and treat every male citizens enlisted in National Service with utmost respect and care. Every NS man alive is an extra man to defend Singapore. -
verykiasu2010:
Its at d lowest end of six-figure sum for a life lost while serving.
probably not even one peanut
One shd also be aware dat most, if not all, insurance policies, specifically exclude all claims if injury/loss of life occurs as a result of military involvement.
So wat MINDEF pays out is all a deceased soldier's family gets n it is really much less than a peanut for a life.
Understand MINDEF is now encouraging soldiers to take part in a Group Insurance policy, its optional but soldiers hv to pay out of their own pockets. -
They rather think a person choose to escape than to put in extra effort to evaluate.
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Oh gosh .. So sad to read the above posts .. :sad: ....
Every life is precious ... Every ns man is someone's precious son whom they have brought up with care and love .. :sad: -
verykiasu2010:
250k ....peanut ! kacang ! our children worth more billion put togetherwe spent millions and millions every where with questionable necessity and sting on $250k ? what kind of warped logic do we have in the gov't ? it is not even 10% of the PM's salary. What cost ?
if we really value life, what is $250k ? or even a few of $250k ?
it is just 3 pieces of COE
money cannot pay the bleeding heart of a parent.
sighnn... can we not understand unless the lost is so close to us????
Time for a wake up call . -
Way2GO:
Should do free health screening before sent for training? I think group insurance also cannot do much a help if dead. (touch wood).
Its at d lowest end of six-figure sum for a life lost while serving.verykiasu2010:
probably not even one peanut
One shd also be aware dat most, if not all, insurance policies, specifically exclude all claims if injury/loss of life occurs as a result of military involvement.
So wat MINDEF pays out is all a deceased soldier's family gets n it is really much less than a peanut for a life.
Understand MINDEF is now encouraging soldiers to take part in a Group Insurance policy, its optional but soldiers hv to pay out of their own pockets. -
Oppsgal:
Should do free health screening before sent for training? I think group insurance also cannot do much a help if dead. (touch wood).[/quote]what is needed is those in depth and detailed screening, not the normal usual cursory health screening
Its at d lowest end of six-figure sum for a life lost while serving.Way2GO:
[quote=\"verykiasu2010\"]
probably not even one peanut
One shd also be aware dat most, if not all, insurance policies, specifically exclude all claims if injury/loss of life occurs as a result of military involvement.
So wat MINDEF pays out is all a deceased soldier's family gets n it is really much less than a peanut for a life.
Understand MINDEF is now encouraging soldiers to take part in a Group Insurance policy, its optional but soldiers hv to pay out of their own pockets. -
verykiasu2010:
we spent millions and millions every where with questionable necessity and sting on $250k ? what kind of warped logic do we have in the gov't ? it is not even 10% of the PM's salary. What cost ?
if we really value life, what is $250k ? or even a few of $250k ?
it is just 3 pieces of COE
I must first state that my heart goes out to all who have lost their sons through national service, and one life lost is one life too many.
But coming back to detailed mass screening of the boys, the cost and effort is colossal. One machine costs $250k, but to scan the whole cohort, one would need hundreds of these machines. Even then, equipment cost is just money and surmountable. It is the manpower that is needed to scan and medically evaluate the whole cohort of boys, that is difficult to pull together. With a healthcare system that is already bursting at the seams, it is impossible to organise any large-scale screening in the foreseeable future. It needs a sizeable period of planning and preparation.
But of course, we can start NOW.... -
if their routine health check failed to pick up some medical problems which was earlier confirmed by private specialists, which one will they
follow?
:nailbite: :yikes: -
Ok, what is the rate of asthmatic deaths in Singapore in the non-military setting versus the rate of asthmatic deaths during NS training?
What is the rate of suicide in the suicidally depressed in the non-military setting versus the rate of suicide during NS related activities?
Not trying to make a point here, but before we can decide if there is something to be chased, I’d like to see the numbers.
N.B. I do have 3 boys so training safety is obviously a concern. -
pinky:
Actually if we exclude any minor medical condition from combat duty, (especially diagnoses from private specialists, who are in the pay of the NS boy's parents, who can go doctor-hopping until they find someone who will concur), we won't have a fighting force to speak of.if their routine health check failed to pick up some medical problems which was earlier confirmed by private specialists, which one will they
follow?
:nailbite: :yikes:
The final say is the medical board, chaired by internal and/or external medical specialists. -
NS is a shared responsibility amongst all the parents of boys. If we were to put out a poll here, which parent would be willing for their son to be enrolled as a Commando trainee, how many folk would say yes? By the same token, if you had a choice to have your son placed in a combat vs service vocation, what would you choose?
Therefore, NS is compulsory, not discretionary. The choice of vocations is also determined by the commanders, not parents (or influence wielded thereof).
As for screening and medical cover, I think one can always make the case that more is better. The more difficult question is at what point does 'more' become unsustainable, and perhaps getting very little bang for the effort.
Let's us the example of cardiac ultrasound. I don't really know the numbers but lets play with some scenarios to understand when it would be effective and when it is not.
Assuming a birth cohort is about 36,000 annually, and half are boys, MINDEF would be enrolling about 18,000 boys per year. Dr Leslie Lam is presumably talking about structural heart issues which can be detected by ultrasound, a chief one would be hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). A reference to prevalence of HCM is here --> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7641357. Based on this paper, it is about 0.2% (2 out of 1000). So, in a cohort of 36,000, we may expect about 72 cases.
How about the risks of death from HCM? Here is another reference for you --> http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/152913-overview#aw2aab6b2b5. Based on this, it is expected to be about 1-3% per year.
So, we may expect 1-2 patients with HCM who are at risk of dying from the condition every year, even in the natural setting.
Now on the cost and resource side. Assuming CMPB can do health screenings year round. With 250 working days a year, CMPB needs to screen 72 recruits a day, to get through 18,000. Assuming each ultrasound takes 30 minutes, and each machine/cardiologist pair can screen 15 patients per day, you need 18 machine/cardiologist pair working full time, 250 days a year JUST to do ultrasound scanning of the heart for NS recruits. Last time I checked, there were about 160 cardiologists in Singapore.
So, not taking sides here, but I suppose the question is whether we commit >10% of our cardiologist resource annually and 18 ultrasound machines to perhaps mitigate (not eliminate, for the serviceman may die from the heart condition anyway regardless of what you do) the risk of 1-2 deaths a year from a single heart condition?
By the way, a medical screening goes well beyond the heart, and every test for every condition you think off can be subject to the same analysis above.
So, just taking a cold hard look at the numbers, if we have up to 1 child dying in school per year per cohort from heart related issues, and up to 2 NS man dying per year from heart related issues, that is basically the background rate for sudden cardiac death. The only difference is that if they die in school and NS, the g'ment gets blamed, and if they die outside of that, the doctors get blamed
(Genes never get blamed, by the way) -
And oh, the annual price (cost) of mitigating the risk of (not preventing) a SINGLE death from this SINGLE medical condition, at $300 per scan, is therefore approximately $5.4M, EXcluding the initial cost of purchasing the scanners, at $4.5M.
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The Singapore Armed Forces has suspended training with smoke grenades, pending the completion of an inquiry into the death of a full-time national serviceman (NSF) in April.
The Ministry of Defence revealed this on Wednesday night, but did not give further details such as when the suspension started.
It was responding to queries from The Straits Times regarding the death of Private Dominique Sarron Lee Rui Feng, 21, who died on April 17.
The Straits Times has learnt that the cause of his death was \"acute allergic reaction due to inhalation of zinc chloride fumes\".
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/saf-suspends-training-smoke-grenades-20120920 -
kiddo:
feel very painful to read in today's shin min cover page on how the mother would visit his grave every day after work and decorate it nicely with the things that he loved. Guess the loss of a child takes a long long time to heal, if ever. :sad:
250k ....peanut ! kacang ! our children worth more billion put togetherverykiasu2010:
we spent millions and millions every where with questionable necessity and sting on $250k ? what kind of warped logic do we have in the gov't ? it is not even 10% of the PM's salary. What cost ?
if we really value life, what is $250k ? or even a few of $250k ?
it is just 3 pieces of COE
money cannot pay the bleeding heart of a parent.
sighnn... can we not understand unless the lost is so close to us????
Time for a wake up call . -
3Boys:
And oh, the annual price (cost) of mitigating the risk of (not preventing) a SINGLE death from this SINGLE medical condition, at $300 per scan, is therefore approximately $5.4M, EXcluding the initial cost of purchasing the scanners, at $4.5M.
To put things into perspective, this is about how much they pay a year for one CEO of one GLC, give or take a million. I leave it to KSP to decide which is better value. But I have no doubt MOD can afford it.