Singapore—A man who claims that his operations manager (OM) did not allow him to see his father as he lay dying in the hospital took to social media to say that he “cannot and will never forgive” his former superior.
In a post on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page on Tuesday (Oct 27), Mr Syed Ahmad Sabar Aljoofri, wrote that his father died last December and that his post comes “a little too late” but he “decided to break my silence” believing it “is something which is neither a trivial matter nor an everyday occurrence.”
On the day of his father’s death, Dec 23, 2019, Mr Syed was at his office in the CBD area, covering for a colleague on leave. At 9:40 am he got a call from a doctor at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), who told him that his terminally ill father appeared unresponsive and that his time of death was likely to be imminent. The doctor urged him to come quickly to have his final words and prayers for his father.
But when Mr Syed told his OM about the situation, he was told that he could only leave at 4:00 that afternoon.
When Mr Syed answered that he needed to leave immediately as advised by his father’s doctor, he wrote that the OM “agreed to a compromise by deciding not to make me remain at work until the said timing, he did not release me right away & instead, he insisted me to remain for another 1 hour over the excuse that he needed me to help him clear his backlog.”
But the doctor called Mr Syed again an hour later to say his father had been put on life support. He then called his mother to ask her to go to the hospital.
He told his OM he had to rush to the hospital as his mother waited for him there, but was told again he needed to stay another hour.
At 11:30 am “for the 3rd & final time,” Mr Syed “begged” the OM to be allowed to go to the hospital and received “an unwanted response, which is, ‘But I thought that your mother is not being (sic) concerned about your father’s wellbeing?’.
He answered back, “It’s not about whether she’s being concern or not but what matters is that the doctor told me that my father appeared unresponsive & because of that, he is very likely to passed (sic) away at any point of time therefore, he urged me to make my way now”.
At that point, the manager allowed Mr Syed to leave but as he was on his way to TTSH at 11:42, he was told that his father had died.
“Upon hearing that, I broke down & cried until my stomach hurts, (sic) & it’s not because of my father being (sic) no longer around, since he kept on telling me, for many times, that he can sense he will not be around for any longer & hence, he is prepared to face death.
Rather, it’s because he passed away without anyone being on (sic) his side & worse, I did not manage to whisper my last words & prayers through his ears & be with him for the very last time which all along, I’ve been promising myself to do that to (sic) him when his time is nearing.
In fact, getting me to whisper my last words & prayers to him through his ear was his ultimate final wish which he expected me to fulfil them & he kept on reminding & urging me to do so, even way before his health condition got critical.”
To add insult to injury, Mr Syed was terminated from the company after the OM filed a complaint concerning his many days of leave, which he took in order to care for his father. He wrote that he kept the HR and OM informed of his absences, but was “completely fine” with his termination, even wishing that he’d been terminated before his father died so he wouldn’t have missed saying his last words and prayers at his death.
Mr Syed’s anger at not having been allowed to see his dying father is still obvious as he wrote, “But what pisses me off is that my OM did not allow me to rush down to the hospital immediately, as prompted by the doctor, to witness my father’s passing & have my final words & prayers to (sic) my father.
Until today, I cannot & will never forgive my OM for what he had indirectly done to my father.” —/TISG