November 11, 2011

A Danish national has filed a writ against Alexandra Hospital (AH) for allegedly planting a microchip in him during a 1988 operation, which he claimed later caused him mental distress due to being constantly monitored.

According to court papers filed in the High Court on June 21 against AH, which has been managed by Jurong Health Services since August last year, Mr Mogens Tindhof Honore said he first found a metal instrument akin to a microchip in his left lung after an X-ray scan in 1997.

Mr Honore, 54, added the metal piece was implanted in him during an operation at AH more than two decades ago – the last time he had undergone surgery in his chest and lung.

Represented by lawyer Oliver Quek, the former seaman said that he was stabbed in the lung in May 1988. After his discharge, he kept hearing voices in his head and could not lead a normal life. He would also feel generally unwell and would even cough out blood.

“(Mr Honore) also discovered and experienced that strange people on the streets would approach and speak to (him) about strange subject matters or pass strange irrelevant comments,” according to the papers filed.

Mr Honore said that his subsequent discovery of being constantly tracked left him in a “perpetual state of apprehension and fear for the safety of his life”. It also prevented him from holding on to a job.

When he returned to Singapore in December last year to investigate his condition, he claimed that he was turned away by AH which said it had no records of his stay.

He claimed that two X-ray scans later on May 9 this year at AH and Mount Elizabeth Hospital found the metal fragment (microchip) in his left chest wall instead of his left lung.

He also claimed that, earlier this month, he underwent an operation at Mount Elizabeth Hospital to remove the fragment.

In his lawsuit, Mr Honore is now alleging that employees of AH who had then operated on him implanted the microchip in him intentionally, causing “exceptional harm and lifelong suffering”. He also said that the alleged act constitutes a trespass on his body.

Mr Honore claims that he suffers from various conditions following the alleged act, such as impairment of relationship, loss of enjoyment of life and suicidal thoughts.

Seeking damages for expenses incurred such as psychiatric help and medication, he is also alleging that AH medical staff who tended to him were negligent.

He said that the staff was careless in placing a metal fragment in his left chest wall during the operation, resulting in harm and injury.

Responding to media queries, AH director of communications and service quality Casey Chang said: “We understand that the patient had recently returned to Alexandra Hospital to seek information regarding medical treatment he had received at Alexandra Hospital in May 1988. This was 23 years ago when Alexandra Hospital was a government hospital.”

She added that, after the hospital was informed of the lawsuit, AH has taken steps to convey to the patient’s lawyer (Mr Quek) that Jurong Health Services Pte Ltd has been wrongly identified as the defendant in the suit.

At the time Mr Honore was treated in AH in 1988, the hospital was under the Ministry of Health.

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