[Top: Madam Chee (with a photograph of her husband in the background) has tried to raise money to pay his medical bills.]

By Desmond Ng

HER husband died from pneumonia and perforated bleeding of the ulcer in a hospital last June.

The bill from East Shore Hospital came up to $300,000.

Surprised by the size of the bill, Madam Chee Mei Leen, 62, a receptionist, and her family tried to raise the money.

But they could only pay about half that amount and still owed the hospital about $167,000.

East Shore is now suing the family for the unpaid amount, which the family had not settled since last June, according to court papers obtained by The New Paper.

The hospital has named Madam Chee, her son-in-law and daughter as defendants.

It claims that Madam Chee's daughter and son-in-law had agreed to be guarantors for the medical fees incurred by Mr Kow's hospitalisation.

But the family, through their lawyer, is disputing this.

They claim that the treatment given to Mr Kow was 'long, complicated and incurred extremely high medical costs'.

According to court papers, Madam Chee said her late husband, Mr Kow Beng Lim, 60, was admitted on the understanding that he would only be treated for a minor ailment and would not incur any complicated treatment or high medical costs.

Admitted as outpatient

She has two daughters, aged 31 and 21.

She said her late husband went to Changi General Hospital as an outpatient in February last year for a throat infection.

The family later admitted him to East Shore in April, and thought that he would be there only for a week.

But his condition deteriorated and he was in the intensive care unit (ICU) for a few weeks, said Madam Chee.

He died a month later.

As legal action is ongoing, ParkwayHealth said it was unable to comment further on the case.

In court papers, the hospital said it had provided hospitalisation and nursing services to Mr Kow from 25Apr to 2 Jun last year.

It also claims that in admitting her husband to the hospital on 25 Apr, Madam Chee agreed to the charges that would be incurred.

She also signed the 'Agreement for Hospital Services'.

The hospital also claims that her son-in-law and daughter signed the necessary documents that made them guarantors for costs incurred.

It says that to date, the amount of $167,000 is still outstanding and interest of one per cent per month from the date of the invoice (20 Jun 2008) is also due to the hospital and it reserves the right to charge this interest.

This story was first published in The New Paper.