Following the death of her 21-month-old son Asher, local influencer Melissa Koh shared the number of his hospital bills, which is about $700,000.
This 33-year-old mom-influencer also thanked everyone who donated to a crowd-funding campaign initiated by local photographer and fellow influencer Daryl Aiden Yow, who had wished to raise money to help cover the fees.
“We mentioned to him when he visited us at the wake that we were not keen to fund-raise, but he went ahead with it, out of the goodness of his heart, as he really felt like he couldn’t sit back and ‘do nothing’,” Melissa Koh shared on Instagram Stories last Thursday.
“He wanted to help in whatever capacity he could, so he proceeded on his own accord.”
The collection raised from a crowd-funding campaign
The collection raised was over $34,000, which Yow handed to Melissa and her husband, as reported by The Straits Times.
“If you had donated, thank you for your generosity,” Melissa Koh wrote.
“I would like to reassure you that the entire amount collected will be going to Asher’s hospitalisation bills and not used for anything else.”
She further shared that the bills amounted to about $400,000 to $500,000 only from his admission alone because Asher was on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for a month.
“We were expecting him to come off Ecmo sooner, but he couldn’t,” Melissa Koh said.
“Additionally, we have outstanding bills from the second and third admission last year, which amounts to just under 200k.”
Melissa added that Asher was not able to get insured as he was born with a congenital heart issue. Meanwhile, her maternity insurance would not cover hospital stays or his medical conditions.
“His principal doctor, who had seen him through the first three heart surgeries, practises there, and we are most confident with Asher being under his primary care,” Melissa explained.
“His life was hanging by a thread, and we couldn’t bring ourselves to allow ‘costs’ to cloud our judgment as to where to send him.”