Singapore— Ryanlizana Celine Ng-Chan, the mum of one-year-old Aldrina Prawesti, who is the country’s case number 759, made a special appeal in a now-deleted Facebook post for parents to be grateful that their children are home with them, safe and sound, instead of complaining.
As a mum who had to see her very young child suffer in a hospital, Ms Ng-Chan wants parents to see things from a fresh perspective.
Her post evidently struck a chord among many, as it was shared over 5,000 times before she deleted it.
She posted a photo of her daughter being attended to by several health workers, who held her down while the child’s blood was drawn.
The young mum wrote, “I didn’t want to share (and I’m putting this on public so y’all can share all you want and warn all parents out there) but reading a lot of parents complain about having to spend the whole month with their child/children, I want to put a tape over their mouths. Be thankful your child/children is/are not confined to [the four] walls in a hospital.”
With feeling, she added, “This is my daughter, getting her [second] blood test. If this image doesn’t wake you up and still want to have one last hurrah, I hope they bury you in the longkang [drain] at Semakau island.”
At the end of her post she explained that she had originally only taken the photo for her husband to see, but she wanted the public to know what would happen to any child if he or she tested positive for Covid-19.
She strongly urged parents to keep their children home, and not let them go to playground, resorting to writing in all capitals: “IS IT YOU WANT TO START NEW PLAYGROUND CLUSTER?” (sic)
The little girl was said to have tested positive for Covid-19 on March 27 and was hospitalized at the National University Hospital. The family had recent travelled to France, which has come under some criticism, since there is a high rate of infection in that country.
After she had taken down her original post, Ms Ng-Chan wrote that she realized she had no right to post the photos of the medical team, and they may not want to be in the limelight since her post had gotten widely shared.
She added that she had talked to a department head at the hospital, “What we need the least is for the medical team to feel pressured that their photo might be taken and posted online while on duty. It’s tough that they have to battle the uncertainties of the virus and their mental health is more important than what I might receive from taking the post down.”
She also said that as long as parents get the message to keep their children home, that was the important part.
While many Covid-19 patients are elderly, and it was originally thought that children do not get infected with the coronavirus as much as adults do, there have been cases wherein children have died from the infection with the youngest child who died being only 6 weeks old. No Singaporean children have died from Covid-19 related causes, however. -/TISG
Children less sick from COVID-19, but still spread the virus