Xinjiang government: 76-year-old Singaporean tourist saved from critical condition to donate over 10,000 yuan to hospital annually

The official new media account of the government of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has posted that a 76-year-old Singaporean tourist who was saved after falling critically ill in Xinjiang has decided to donate 100,000 yuan (S$19,000) to the hospital each year as a designated donation to help patients in financial difficulty — the first time the hospital has received a designated donation from an individual.

The Xinjiang government's official new media account "Xinjiang Release" published an article and video on Tuesday (Nov 3) titled "What did this foreign elderly man experience in Xinjiang that moved him so deeply?" The Xinjiang government said that 76-year-old Singaporean Koh Sim Hock travelled from Tashkurgan to Shache on Oct 14, where altitude sickness triggered sudden acute high-altitude pulmonary edema, left heart failure with acute pulmonary edema, type I respiratory failure and cardiogenic shock.

Because of his advanced age, he also had other underlying conditions.

When Koh Sim Hock was rushed into the intensive care unit of Shache County People's Hospital, "his life was hanging by a thread." In the video, Koh Sim Hock recalled: "On the way (to the hospital) in the 120 (China's medical emergency number), I actually could not breathe at all." Koh Sim Hock's wife said: "When the blood oxygen seemed to drop from 50 to 38, I was very, very scared." The Xinjiang government said that Zou Hai, a member of Shanghai's 12th batch of "group-style" medical aid personnel to Xinjiang and an expert in emergency and critical care medicine at Pudong New Area People's Hospital, then led an assessment, headed the critical care team in resuscitation, coordinated multidisciplinary judgment of the condition and fought side by side with local Xinjiang medical staff.

The elderly man came out of danger day by day, was taken off the ventilator and had his tube removed on Oct 17, and eventually recovered and was discharged.

In the Xinjiang government's video, Koh Sim Hock, lying in a hospital bed, described it as: "I was saved from the brink of death." It was introduced that, to repay the hospital for saving his life, Koh Sim Hock recently made a decision at Shache County People's Hospital: in his own name, to donate 100,000 yuan each year to the hospital as a designated donation to help hospitalized patients in the intensive care unit who are in financial difficulty.

This is the first time in the hospital's history that it has received a designated donation from an individual.

The Xinjiang government article quoted Koh Sim Hock as saying that the experience moved him deeply and that the donation was "doing my little bit within my ability." Koh Sim Hock's wife also said: "No words can express my gratitude."