Anonymous_X: Runaway Coma Bride: Escape from Singapore...or kidnapped by her own family???

I'll tend to think the latter. See, the Vietnamese bride is in coma & unable to make a decision. Her family came & just because of some 'conflict' with her fiance, the unconscious bride is taken away from Singapore!

If this doesn't seem like a kidnapping (after all the 'escape' operation seems very secretive), I don't know what to call that.

The fiance ought to make a police report. Against the bride's family & perhaps against the hospital, NUH. How can the hospital let the patient go without informing the fiance whom in the first place must be the one who had brought her in for the treatment?!

In a stealth operation, the family of the Vietnamese coma bride have secretly taken her back home, without the knowledge of her fiance.

After weeks of whispered planning, Ms Dinh Thi Thom, 21, finally made it out of Singapore yesterday, with help from the Vietnam embassy, lawyers and hospital staff.

The escape is the latest twist in the bitter tussle over Ms Dinh between her Singaporean fiance, Mr Teo Boon Teck, 30, and her mother, Madam Nguyen Thi-Dum, 51, and her relative, Madam Mac Thi Hai, 72.

But it may not be the end of the saga, as Mr Teo has hit out with allegations after her departure.

The New Paper traces the family's final hours in Singapore.

Tuesday night

It was the night before the secret escape, and Madam Mac was in a panic.

Where was Ms Dinh's plane ticket?

She tried to call their lawyer before realising the ticket was with the medical transport company hired to arrange her journey back to Vietnam.

It was a special plane ticket, involving four seats in a commercial Singapore Airlines flight which Ms Dinh would lie across.

A trained nurse would accompany her in a fifth seat.

Madam Mac and Madam Nguyen were on a separate, cheaper Jetstar flight, leaving less than half an hour later than Ms Dinh's.

Finally, 50 days after their 18 Feb arrival in Singapore - mostly spent eating, bathing and sleeping at the National University Hospital (NUH), and keeping vigil by Ms Dinh's bedside - they were going home.

The arrangements had been made by lawyers at KhattarWong. The Vietnam embassy had approached the firm's deputy managing partner, Mr K Anparasan, for help.

Mr Anparasan and his team negotiated with the insurers of the lorry driver who knocked down Ms Dinh on 24 Dec and obtained a $20,000 interim payment.

With part of the sum, they hired the medical transport company and liaised with the Vietnam hospital that Ms Dinh would be taken to.

Mr Anparasan would also coordinate all legal, financial and administrative matters on their behalf, including payment of the $97,000 interim NUH bill, and negotiate further with the insurers.

His services would easily cost a five-figure sum, but he's doing it for free as it was for a 'worthy cause'.

He was moved by Madam Nguyen's devotion to her daughter.

'What really comes to me is a mother's love. Coming to a foreign land, staying in a hospital, in spite not knowing anyone. It's really touching,' he said.

The two women waited until Mr Teo and his father left the ward before they started packing.

They arrived in Singapore with one suitcase, but are leaving with three, plus several plastic bags of clothes, food and gifts.

Said Madam Mac in Mandarin: 'After our story was published, several Vietnamese ladies living in Singapore visited us.'

Besides gifts, they also gave the women clothes and money - totalling about $700 - to get by.

Said a housewife in her 50s: 'We wanted to help a fellow Vietnamese in need by providing whatever they needed, such as moral support and home-cooked food. We couldn't turn our backs on them.'

Madam Mac said other strangers also gave money - $50 here, $100 there. Even a fellow patient's mother gave them $100.

'She saw us living here for so long, every day, when she came to see her daughter,' said Madam Mac, who talks to the media because Madam Nguyen only speaks Vietnamese.

When they arrived, they had only $1,900 between them, almost all borrowed from friends and relatives. Madam Nguyen is a farmer, with no savings.

'The money we brought here, it's long gone,' said Madam Mac.

Before they slept, Madam Nguyen carefully laid out a pair of pants on her daughter's legs, judging the length.

It was a gift from one of the Vietnamese women, and would be perfect for her daughter to wear on the journey home, she decided.

Wednesday 8am

Madam Mac returned to the ward, carrying breakfast bought at the NUH canteen. But the two women were too nervous to eat beyond a few mouthfuls.

The ambulance was set to arrive at 10.30am. Will Mr Teo and his father show up at the ward before that?

'They seldom come at this time. Usually, they arrive at noon,' she said.

Every time a male voice sounded behind them, their heads whipped backwards, then relaxed with relief. Not them.

Pointing to a red rose and a Snow White balloon at the side of Ms Dinh's bed, Madam Mac said: 'That's from the fat one (Mr Teo). We are going to leave it behind.'

Hospital staff and fellow patients dropped by one by one, clasped the women's hands, said goodbyes, and wished them a safe journey.

Said Madam Mac: 'The doctors and nurses have been so good to us, we really must thank them.'

10.30am

The medical transport team from A3 International Assists arrived, with bad news.

The ambulance service in Vietnam had raised its price from $750 to $1,500. And there was no time to find an alternative.

But A3's nursing manager, Mr Thomas Lynn, assured the women his company will absorb the extra cost and take on this job at a loss.

Moved by their plight, the company did not charge for the ambulance transport to Changi Airport and loan of expensive medical equipment on the flight.

The hospital staff drew the curtains around Ms Dinh's bed. When they opened, she was wearing a red top, and the striped pants her mother had picked out the night before.

Ms Dinh's condition seems to have improved recently. Now she is able to open her eyes and move her left arm slightly.

Then they were off, with Madam Nguyen and Madam Mac cracking smiles and waving frantically to nurses and doctors.

En route to the airport, Madam Mac's handphone rang non-stop with call after call from the friends they had made here.

Noon

After a nervous wait, Mr Lynn finished checking in Ms Dinh for the 12.50pm SQ flight at Terminal 2, while she lay in the ambulance parked outside the departure hall.

Madam Nguyen gently caressed her daughter's face, before the ambulance zoomed off through a special entrance to the tarmac to put Ms Dinh onto the plane.

The two elderly women then dashed to Terminal 1 for their 1.10pm flight.

But they walked into immigration and hit a snag at the final hurdle.

12.15pm

'There's a problem with your visa extensions,' they were told.

Panicking, they searched their bags for the Vietnam embassy official's namecard and tried to explain their situation.

They whipped out an article in The New Paper about Ms Dinh's plight. Comprehension dawned on an immigration officer's face.

'The Jurong accident?' she asked.

As their problem was being sorted out, another started.

Mr Lynn called KhattarWong's offices to tell them about a problem with Ms Dinh's passport.

Immigration officers had questioned her brand-new passport issued by the Vietnam embassy. The Teos had refused to return her old passport, so they reported it as stolen and obtained a new one.

Where was the police report, the officers asked.

Another flurry of phone calls resolved the problem and Ms Dinh was allowed on her flight.

Soon after, an immigration officer led Madam Nguyen and Madam Mac to their gate. They turned and waved goodbye, for the last time.

THE BIG TUSSLE

Oct 2008:

Vietnamese bride Dinh Thi Thom comes to Singapore to marry Mr Teo Boon Teck

24 Dec:

Ms Dinh hit by lorry before wedding. Suffers brain haemorrhage. Slips into coma. Her story is told in The New Paper on 14 Feb

18 Feb:

Ms Dinh's mother and aunt arrive in S'pore. They fight with the Teos over who to care for her and where

March:

Vietnam embassy gets lawyer to argue the mother's case, only to find that Mr Teo has engaged a lawyer to claim insurance

21 Mar:

The New Paper reports that the conflict between Ms Dinh's family and the Teos was getting worse

Sometime in March:

The mother's lawyer arrange their transport home, and medical care for Ms Dinh in Ho Chin Minh City

8 April:

Ms Dinh's family secretly whisks her out of Singapore