We write this to account for our actions.
Many have asked us to out the lady, and some have said no such lady exists. Some have asked if we published without doing any verification whatsoever. We write this to give an account of what happened.
The truth of the matter is that the lady does exist, and she did reach out to us. In the conversation, she also said her husband and her were lawyers (it will be relevant in the account later).
We asked for documents many times. We kept in constant contact throughout the past few days (up until the police report was filed and then she came clean). She also told us that she was in touch with KKH and that they knew who she was, and that she told them that she was the subject of the account.
Till now, we honestly don’t know why she lied and we do not wish to speculate. Throughout the verification process, she had provided us with invoices, purported screenshots of email correspondence with KKH, call logs, and updates.
We are still at a loss about everything that has happened. We felt our trust has been betrayed, and in turn, we have let our readers down.
All allegations in the screenshots from her may be false but we are putting this together to account for what happened. She informed us after her admission that the evidence was not doctored, but we do not know who or what to believe anymore.
We wish to set out what happened and we have nothing to hide. Sometimes when we pressed, she told us that HealthHub had removed some of the records, and that she was under a lot of pressure from family. It was only when we confronted her with the police report, that she came clean.
But what has happened has happened.
Within 10 minutes of her admission to us, we put out our apology and explanation.
When we checked this morning (26 March), she had deleted her entire conversation with us after her admissions. But we have kept some screenshots.
The Initial Message
When she sent us the initial message, we had noted that she had used her real name, account, and picture. This account had also previously interacted with us.
After we received her story, she told us that she was sending us this story in light of the NUH incident. We had asked her to verify.
She had sent us an invoice from KKH printed on 2 March that bore her name. Her request was that we should block out her name if we do publish.
We sent an email to KKH prior to the publication of the story. In our email, we copy pasted the woman’s entire account, and attached it. KKH responded to ask the name of the patient. We informed the woman, and she said she will reach out to them directly.
She also said that her husband and her were looking into a lawsuit.
When we told her not to sign anything without checking, she told us that they are lawyers.
Response to KKH’s statements
The next day, KKH put out 2 statements, one at 3pm and the other at 7pm.
The statement at 3pm reads:
We refer to your query sent yesterday evening. Please find below, our hospital’s statement, to be attributed to Professor Tan Hak Koon, Chairman, Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH):
KKH takes patient feedback seriously, and we are looking into this. Despite our best efforts, we are still unable to identify the patient based on the information that is publicly available. We are appealing to the patient, to contact us at feedback@kkh.com.sg. We are concerned about the patient’s well-being and seek the opportunity to address her concerns, and provide the necessary support.
The statement at 7pm reads:
KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) is aware of an online report about an incident at the Urgent O&G Centre.
Despite our best efforts, we are still unable to identify the patient based on the scenario reported. There appears to be discrepancies between the story and the bill information shared online. Preliminary investigations indicate that there is no such case at the hospital on the date indicated in the report.
At KKH, we do not turn away patients in need of medical care. Our patients’ health is our top priority. KKH’s Urgent O&G Centre (UOGC) is a 24-hour walk-in centre for women with obstetric and gynaecological conditions requiring immediate attention. UOGC provides round-the-clock acute care for conditions in early pregnancy (less than 22 weeks of pregnancy), post-pregnancy, and acute gynaecological issues.
When a patient arrives at the UOGC, she will be triaged and attended to according to the severity and urgency of the condition. As conditions may evolve quickly to become more critical, staff will screen and re-triage patients in the waiting area as necessary.
Patients with the highest level of urgency will be attended to immediately. The average waiting time for patients in the middle level of urgency is within 30 minutes. Patients at risk of a miscarriage will rest on a wheelchair or trolley, or be transferred to a monitoring area, as necessary, and their vital signs monitored. During this time, nurses will be at hand to respond and support the patient accordingly.
In the event that a miscarriage is in progress, UOGC staff will support the patient through the loss process, including performing ultrasound scans to ensure that there are no significant RPOC (retained products of conception – tissue that remains in the womb after a pregnancy ends). An evacuation of the womb may be required if a large amount of RPOC is present, and a repeat ultrasound may be required.
Should a pregnancy loss occur beyond the first trimester, the pregnant woman would be offered admission to KKH’s inpatient wards for monitoring. Patients are always given a choice to claim the fetus and they would need to endorse their decision via a form. Fetuses that are unclaimed, will be sent to the hospital’s mortuary for burial or cremation, in accordance to the patient’s choice, and will not be discarded as medical waste.
We are concerned about the well-being of the patient cited in the report, and we appeal for the patient to contact us at feedback@kkh.com.sg for us to address her concerns and render the necessary support.
When we had asked her about the statements, this is what she told us. We were a bit puzzled because they were supposed to have been in touch after we sent the email across.
She then told us the called happened between the release of the 2 statements, and sent us a screenshot. The screenshot could be fake for all we know, but she sent us the same number in screenshots of call logs the next day.
When we asked her about the contents of the call, she said that they were discussing investigations and compensation. She said she didn’t want to say anything without confirming with her legal team.
As for the statements itself, she issued a substantive response but we will not reproduce the contents here as they may contain further false allegations.
Further questions about the call
At this juncture, we were a bit unsure as to why KKH would state that they did not know the identity of the patient because she to us represented that they were in touch.
We had thought that one possibility was that because the lady did not want to commit to anything and wanted to talk to her legal team first, she didn’t confirm her identity also. As we were being accused of spreading falsehoods, we had asked her point blank.
The next day, she emailed KKH and made her identity clear. Or at least that was what she told us.
Further questions about the call
We then told her that people are accusing the platform of fabrication, and that she should get in touch with KKH directly to make things clear. We told her that we may have to release a short statement on the identity point, and her calls, that we will send to her first.
She then said she will send KKH and email to set everything out.
Then she said it was stuck it outbox and she only sent it at 11.24am. She also said that in the call, she had requested a meeting with KKH. Again, we don’t know what is real and what is fake now. The screenshots of the emails are appended.
Our request for further invoices and HealthHub Issues
Throughout the process we had also asked her for further invoices and correspondence. We also told her we may need to release a short statement to publish KKH’s statements, her response (the supposed calls), and the questions that arise.
For context, the screenshot immediately below was before she admitted that she lied.
She said she needed to discuss with her husband first before sharing.
She then said that she was unable to access the new invoices from HealthHub, but she had an email and also some old HCG results.
This email regarding the bill becomes relevant later. When we posted it in our follow up post to ask about the call and the identity issue, she frantically messaged us to take that slide containing the email down. We now realise that the reason she panicked is because through this email, KKH may know who she is? But she didn’t take issue with our representation of the call (we sent our update setting out her position to her to confirm before we posted it)
The only thing she took issue with was that small screenshot of the email.
Our requests to de-escalate the situation
Multiple times, we had informed her that the only reason why we had to put out the 2nd update was because people were saying that we had fabricated the story and her account. We also needed to set out her position and KKH’s statements.
She was telling us that she was in touch with KKH, but KKH is saying no such person. We had also emailed KKH twice about this but did not receive a response from them.
As long as the identity issue was settled (by her talking to KKH and making it clear that she is the one referred to in the post) and then people will know that she is real.
This was, of course, against the backdrop of her saying that she was in touch with KKH via calls and emails, and that she told KKH that she was the lady in the post.
We had made it clear that we all we wanted is acknowledgement that KKH was in touch with her.
We were wrong to believe her.
In essence, we had believed her because she was a real person with a real name who has set out a very tragic account. She had also supplied the information that we had asked for, and she was candid in sharing with us about her struggles. At every turn, when we had asked her about her experience and her response to KKH’s statements and all, she was in touch with us and providing us reasons and answers. She was also distraught about the supposed loss of her child.
We also shared with her messages from other mothers who were touched by her stories, and we checked in on her time and again because of the many people online who doubted her story. Of course, we now know that they were correct. But at that time, we genuinely felt so bad because we thought she had lost her child and had to go through all these things.
She lied to us about the pressures she faced from her family.
As mentioned above, all allegations in here in screenshots from her are false, but we are putting this together to account for what happened. She informed us after her admission that the evidence was not doctored, but we do not know who or what to believe anymore.
Her Admission
When we confronted her about the police report, she didn’t come clean immediately. At this point, we wanted to get her on the phone but she said she had to deal with things at work.
Between 4.09pm and 4.14pm, we took down all the posts pending investigations. This was even before her admission.
We texted her to ask if everything was okay. At this time, we were still concerned for her well-being, it was then that she came clean. Almost immediately, we put out a statement to inform readers that we have been notified that it was false.
She admitted that she lied, but later told us that the information was not doctored. We don’t know whether to believe her.
We are sorry.
No matter how much we apologise, we cannot undo what we have done. We write to take accountability and to show everyone what happened. We seek your forgiveness, and we are again sorry for letting you down.
