50 Years in Hospital and Not One Visitor

By Jaspal Singh

TANJUNG RAMBUTAN: The only home Ng Kow Yoong can remember is Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta. She was 10 years old when she was admitted to the children’s ward of the then Central Mental Hospital on Aug 12, 1957.

And in all the 50 years she has been in the country’s oldest psychiatric institution, no one has ever visited the 60-year-old or inquired about her health.

Not much is known about her early childhood before she was admitted to the hospital. The details of her life are so sketchy, HBUK director Dr Suarn Singh fears there may be no one alive who might recognise Ng.

“The only useful information the hospital has been able to gather from her old file is that Ng had lived with her family in Taiping before she was admitted to the institution,” he told the New Straits Times yesterday.

But the hospital’s medical social work unit hopes to locate her family through the NST.

Admitting that it was a long shot considering Ng’s long stay at the hospital, Dr Suarn said he hoped someone would recognise her and be able to tell the hospital where her family is.

While it is not clear why Ng was admitted to the hospital, Dr Suarn said there were two main reasons children were put in the children’s ward in those days: it was either because the child demonstrated aggressive behaviour or because he or she was mentally challenged.

The children’s ward closed long ago.

HBUK medical social work unit officer Norhapisah Ismail said the hospital wanted to get in touch with Ng’s family to discuss her health status.

Family members, or anyone with information about where Ng’s family is, can contact Norhapisah at 05-5332333 (extension 5973) or the hospital’s female ward 4A at extension 5533.

(c) 2007 New Straits Times. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.