While pursuing her master’s degree in the Netherlands, Chloe Tan started experiencing frequent abdominal pains that were accompanied by vomiting and gurgling noises from her stomach. The doctors at the local hospital repeatedly told her she had food poisoning and kept turning down her request to be warded, so after a week of excruciating pain, she decided to return to Singapore.
“The doctor at Changi Airport had me sent to Changi General Hospital immediately. I went through various X-rays and CT scans, and received the correct diagnosis of bowel obstruction with a need for emergency surgery,” explains the 28-year-old.
All was well for the first couple of days until she was informed that she was at risk of sepsis due to an infection – leakage had occurred because her intestines were not able to join properly. A second emergency surgery was scheduled to have a stoma created, and Chloe then spent the next month and a half on an IV drip. It was only a few months later that she underwent surgery for the third time to have the hole closed.