Elderly dialysis patient dies after accident in private ambulance

The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) has terminated a $500,000 worth of contract with a private ambulance service provider - Abella Agency. This comes in after a newly hired 38-year old driver lost control of the ambulance and landed in a drain last Tuesday in Clementi.

The ambulance was ferrying a 67-year old patient, Irene Sar, whom was with her 74-year old husband and a medic. They were conveyed to National University Hospital (NUH) where Mrs Irene died two days later from internal bleeding, according to her 43-year old daughter. The husband was treated as an outpatient.

The driver of the ambulance whom fled the accident scene has since been detained. During investigations it has surfaced he did not have a valid licence. The owner of Abella Agecy, Mr Siva Chandran, hired the driver just six days ago, where the driver showed a photocopied drivers' licence after claiming to have lost the original.

He added the driver did not have the $25 replacement fee and showed supporting documents during the interview to prove the loss of his licence. Mr Siva only realised later that the supporting documents were forged after showing it to the police.  

The ambulance service was introduced in May by NKF and this is the first accident. Two other ambulance service operators hired by NKF will continue to ferrry patients to the dialysis centres in the meantime.