Mr Lee Yong Jie was 19 years old when he had a massive stroke. He needed an operation to remove the blood clot in his brain, and even if he survived the operation, he might be paralysed.
When he awoke, the doctors told him that he had a congenital condition called a brain arteriovenous malformation – an abnormal mesh of blood vessels in the brain that causes a stroke when they rupture.
For the first three or four weeks after his stroke, he couldn’t move the left side of his body or do anything he had done before. He had to re-learn many things, such as how to sit up on his own, swallow and control his bladder – all the things he had taken for granted before.
In the end, what kept him going was the unwavering support of his family, girlfriend and friends.
Mr Lee was in the hospital for four to five months, after which he was referred to the Transition To Employment Programme at the SPD, a charity that helps those with disabilities. He went there twice a week to have occupational therapy and physiotherapy. About a year after his stroke, he could walk on my own.
The SPD also helped him to find a programming job at a local company providing IT solutions in May 2015. His boss allowed him to work from home. But he was retrenched in January 2017 when the business fell on hard times. When he was told that he had been laid off, he thought that this is something else that doesn’t happen to young people.
He started his degree course at the Arts and Social Sciences faculty at the National University of Singapore in August. His results have been good so far, and next month, he will receive an award given out by the National Council of Social Service for promising individuals to work as social service professionals. The award will provide him with an allowance.
Mr Lee’s ambition is to be a social worker. His physiotherapist also told him that he could use his experience to help others. He hope to do for them what social workers have done for he and his family, such as supporting him emotionally. He wants to make a difference.
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Source: The Straits Times, 7 December 2017