After receiving over $239,000 in donations thanks to a crowdfunding campaign set up by his daughter, Jimi Cheong was able to return home to Singapore in an air ambulance from Japan.
But things took a turn for the worse when the 62-year-old — already in coma following a cardiac arrest in Tokyo — arrived here after the medical evacuation. While on the way to the hospital from Seletar Airport, the man went into a cardiac arrest in the ambulance and passed away shortly after.
His death is a tragic outcome to the sudden misfortune that fell on the Cheong family since last week. The family had gone on a trip to Japan to celebrate the cancer remission of Jimi’s wife, but the man suffered a heart attack and slipped into a coma shortly after arriving in Tokyo. His travel insurers were no help when it came to the hospital bills (due to a pre-existing condition), and his daughter Eileen sought help by crowdfunding to get the man back home for treatment.
Moved by her story, the funds needed to pay off the hospital bills and medical evacuation were quickly raised on Give.Asia, and arrangements were made to fly him home on an air ambulance. Doctors assessed that the comatose Jimi was in stable condition and fit for air travel. His vitals had remained stable as well throughout the flight back home, according to Eileen.
But it was shortly after the transfer into an ambulance that her father’s heart condition suddenly deteriorated. He passed on soon after.
Despite the shock from the passing, Eileen and her family remain immensely thankful for all the support to bring Jimi back home.
“Thank you for bringing my father back to Singapore, thank you for allowing us to say our final goodbyes on home ground,” she wrote in a grief-stricken update on her crowdfunding page.
“This is an extremely difficult time for my mom and me, and we will really appreciate all the space and privacy that we can get to come to terms with the loss of my father, and to make the necessary arrangements.”
Plans are being made about how the donations will be used and what they’ll do with any excess funds.
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