SPARE A THOUGHT FOR NON-SMOKERS!
The Straits Times, Wednesday, 24 November 2004
Mind Your Body: In the Know (Pg. 11)
"PAYING FOR CIGARETTES HE DIDN'T SMOKE"
That smoking causes lung cancer is bound to evoke a ho-hum reaction from Singaporeans. But seeing a terminally-ill passive smoke struggle to warn against the practice from his hospital bed gives the message a whole new meaning for Radha Basu.
Sprawled on a hospital bed, mouth wide open to fight for every breath, he looked every inch a lung cancer patient living on a borrowed time - paying the price for a lifelong addiction to nicotine.
Except that Mr Lawrence Tan (not his real name) has never been a smoker.
Passive smoking was the culprit, his doctors suspect. The 62-year-old, who is critically ill with lung cancer, spent the last four years running a smoke-filled family-owned pub.
He was diagnosed in February this year with a small-cell lung cancer, a relatively rare form of the disease that doctors say has an "even stronger correlation to smoking" than the more common large-cell variety.
Despite chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and drugs, the cancer has spread aggressively.
As he fights for his life, Mr Tan is keen to get a simple yet poignant message out from his bedside: Smoking kills.
So fierce is his determination to get this across that the former businessman agreed to an interview at his bedside at the National Cancer Centre last week, even though this meant suffering the indignity of letting a complete stranger - me - see him at his most vulnerable.
He had received an emergency blood transfusion that day. His eyes were glazed over with pain, his body was limp with fatigue and every word he uttered was a small victory of his will over the cancer choking his breath.
As a doctor monitored his pulse, he apologised for his dishevelled state. And then waited for the questions.
Did Mr Tan believe that smoking caused his condition? Silent for a while, he briefly looked away, fighting tears. Then he nodded, adding, "Smoking all the time is bad, very bad", gasping for air after every word.
Was he a regular smoker? This time, the answer was a whispered monosyllable: "No".
Did he feel that smoking should be stopped in public places like pubs, where he spent long hours almost every day in recent years?
"Def . . . definitely so" was the laboured reply.
Ironically, running the pub was something Mr Tan did for fun rather than necessity, as a post-retirement diversion, said his son, who is a 32-year-old banker.
Mr Tan would spend at least four to five hours at the pub every day. The younger Mr Tan requested that their real names not be revealed "for business reasons", as none of the pub employees knows of their employer's condition.
Mr Tan's surgeon, Dr Koong Heng Nung - who has launched an aggressive anti-smoking campaign - is particularly angry at the plight of passive smokers. "About three in ten lung cancer patients we see are passive smokers," said Dr Koong, a senior consultant at the National Cancer Centre.
What makes Dr Koong suspect strongly that his patient's work in the pub is to blame is that Mr Tan has small-cell lung cancer. About 95 per cent of small-cell patients get the disease from cigarette smoke.
In the more common adenocarcinoma, or large-cell lung cancer, the disease is lower - at between 80 to 90 per cent, said Dr Koong.
In his seven years of seeing lung cancer patients, Dr Koong has encountered too many cases like Mr Tan's, where even the best possible treatment ends up short against a disease determined to reap a deadly toll.
Small-cell lung cancer is one of the most vicious forms of the disease, in which, if left untreated, a patient dies within three months of getting it.
With treatment, survival rates improve to between six and sixteen months, said Dr Koong.
In Singapore, about three people die every day from lung cancer. About one in five patients has the small-cell form of the disease.
And with endless studies to prove that tobacco is the main cause, Dr Koong is convinced that giving up smoking will lead to a significant reduction in these statistics.
The surgeon was instrumental in getting November designated as the "Lung Cancer Awareness Month" and has also begun a campaign to encourage pubs here to become smoke-free, especially to protect pub employees and patrons who don't smoke.
Pubs in Ireland, New York and California have already taken such steps. Sweden and Hong Kong will soon follow suit.
"Too often, we see cases like Mr Tan's, where treatments yield little result, and prayers are our best hope," said Dr Koong.
"Curbing smoking in public places may help reduce that."
The Tan family, meanwhile, are not content with prayers alone. They are planning a trip to China to try and get Mr Tan treated with Gendicine, which doctors there are touting as the latest breakthrough in cancer treatment.
Making that journey to the land of their forefathers, they hope, will yield the "miracle cure" that has eluded them so far.
Mind Your Body: In the Know (Pg. 11)
"PAYING FOR CIGARETTES HE DIDN'T SMOKE"
That smoking causes lung cancer is bound to evoke a ho-hum reaction from Singaporeans. But seeing a terminally-ill passive smoke struggle to warn against the practice from his hospital bed gives the message a whole new meaning for Radha Basu.
Sprawled on a hospital bed, mouth wide open to fight for every breath, he looked every inch a lung cancer patient living on a borrowed time - paying the price for a lifelong addiction to nicotine.
Except that Mr Lawrence Tan (not his real name) has never been a smoker.
Passive smoking was the culprit, his doctors suspect. The 62-year-old, who is critically ill with lung cancer, spent the last four years running a smoke-filled family-owned pub.
He was diagnosed in February this year with a small-cell lung cancer, a relatively rare form of the disease that doctors say has an "even stronger correlation to smoking" than the more common large-cell variety.
Despite chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and drugs, the cancer has spread aggressively.
As he fights for his life, Mr Tan is keen to get a simple yet poignant message out from his bedside: Smoking kills.
So fierce is his determination to get this across that the former businessman agreed to an interview at his bedside at the National Cancer Centre last week, even though this meant suffering the indignity of letting a complete stranger - me - see him at his most vulnerable.
He had received an emergency blood transfusion that day. His eyes were glazed over with pain, his body was limp with fatigue and every word he uttered was a small victory of his will over the cancer choking his breath.
As a doctor monitored his pulse, he apologised for his dishevelled state. And then waited for the questions.
Did Mr Tan believe that smoking caused his condition? Silent for a while, he briefly looked away, fighting tears. Then he nodded, adding, "Smoking all the time is bad, very bad", gasping for air after every word.
Was he a regular smoker? This time, the answer was a whispered monosyllable: "No".
Did he feel that smoking should be stopped in public places like pubs, where he spent long hours almost every day in recent years?
"Def . . . definitely so" was the laboured reply.
Ironically, running the pub was something Mr Tan did for fun rather than necessity, as a post-retirement diversion, said his son, who is a 32-year-old banker.
Mr Tan would spend at least four to five hours at the pub every day. The younger Mr Tan requested that their real names not be revealed "for business reasons", as none of the pub employees knows of their employer's condition.
Mr Tan's surgeon, Dr Koong Heng Nung - who has launched an aggressive anti-smoking campaign - is particularly angry at the plight of passive smokers. "About three in ten lung cancer patients we see are passive smokers," said Dr Koong, a senior consultant at the National Cancer Centre.
What makes Dr Koong suspect strongly that his patient's work in the pub is to blame is that Mr Tan has small-cell lung cancer. About 95 per cent of small-cell patients get the disease from cigarette smoke.
In the more common adenocarcinoma, or large-cell lung cancer, the disease is lower - at between 80 to 90 per cent, said Dr Koong.
In his seven years of seeing lung cancer patients, Dr Koong has encountered too many cases like Mr Tan's, where even the best possible treatment ends up short against a disease determined to reap a deadly toll.
Small-cell lung cancer is one of the most vicious forms of the disease, in which, if left untreated, a patient dies within three months of getting it.
With treatment, survival rates improve to between six and sixteen months, said Dr Koong.
In Singapore, about three people die every day from lung cancer. About one in five patients has the small-cell form of the disease.
And with endless studies to prove that tobacco is the main cause, Dr Koong is convinced that giving up smoking will lead to a significant reduction in these statistics.
The surgeon was instrumental in getting November designated as the "Lung Cancer Awareness Month" and has also begun a campaign to encourage pubs here to become smoke-free, especially to protect pub employees and patrons who don't smoke.
Pubs in Ireland, New York and California have already taken such steps. Sweden and Hong Kong will soon follow suit.
"Too often, we see cases like Mr Tan's, where treatments yield little result, and prayers are our best hope," said Dr Koong.
"Curbing smoking in public places may help reduce that."
The Tan family, meanwhile, are not content with prayers alone. They are planning a trip to China to try and get Mr Tan treated with Gendicine, which doctors there are touting as the latest breakthrough in cancer treatment.
Making that journey to the land of their forefathers, they hope, will yield the "miracle cure" that has eluded them so far.
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