Eileen Chong’s last ditch effort to bring her comatose father back home from Tokyo achieved overwhelming success as donors moved by her story helped raise enough money for a medical evacuation.
The 25-year-old’s crowdfunding campaign on Give.Asia secured over $239,000 — funds that will be used to pay for the massive bills incurred during her father’s untimely hospitalization in the intensive care unit of Toho Medical University Omori Hospital following a cardiac arrest.
According to The Straits Times, a medical team from Singapore is on hand to bring the man home in the aero-medical mission, with an air ambulance equipped to fly him from Haneda Airport to Seletar Airport without stopping.
They are scheduled to land today at an undisclosed time, for privacy reasons. He will be transferred straight from the tarmac to the hospital.
Folks were moved to donate in droves after hearing about how Cheong’s father suffered a heart attack shortly after arriving in Tokyo on Apr 19 during a family trip meant to celebrate her mother’s cancer remission. He was admitted to the hospital on the same day, placed on life support, and currently remains in a coma.
Her father’s travel insurers were unable to provide help as his collapse was due to a pre-existing heart condition, and medical bills went up to $120,000 after a week in hospital. Another $120,000 was needed to arrange for a medical evacuation to Singapore.
The crowdfunding campaign was greatly successful, and it gathered the funds needed to bring her father home.
“Being able to bring my father back home is really a huge step forward for my family, which has been made possible only through many incredibly kind and generous people like yourself,” wrote Cheong.
