Last Saturday (9 Oct), a doctor by the name of Lai Kah Weng shared a lengthy post on Facebook detailing his experience with the COVID-19 home recovery programme.
His intention was to destigmatise the virus and emphasise that it’s not a “killer infection” for most.
Netizens applauded Dr Lai for sharing his experience and insight and for easing worries about COVID-19 infections. His story went viral and eventually made it to the news.
Three days later, Dr Lai is in the news again, but for entirely different reasons.
Doctor’s Licence With Company Revoked As He Failed to Take Rostered Routine Tests
It turns out that Dr Lai had failed to comply with the rostered routine testing that is mandatory for healthcare workers.
Dr Lai, who works as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Island Orthopaedic Consultants at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, tested positive for COVID-19 on 28 Sep.
He then recovered at home until 8 Oct, and shared his post the next day.
It was only after he tested positive that the hospital discovered he had not undergone the rostered routine tests mandated for healthcare workers.
Under this testing scheme, healthcare workers need to undergo a COVID-19 test every two weeks.
He went for the first polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, but not subsequent ones.
As a result, Dr Lai had his licence revoked by IHH Singapore.
Didn’t Do PCR Tests Because He Had An Ear, Nose, & Throat Condition
In an interview with The Straits Times, Dr Lai confirmed the revocation and explained why he had not gone for his tests.
He said he has an ear, nose, and throat medical condition which makes the swabs needed for PCR tests very painful and causes his nose to bleed.
However, he maintained that this was no excuse for not doing the mandatory tests.
“What I should have done better was to inform the management about my condition so that they can put in place alternative Covid-19 test arrangements,” he said.
He said that when testing protocols changed – healthcare workers had to do antigen rapid tests under the supervision of trained staff instead – he booked an ART but tested positive for COVID-19 before he could complete the test.
Experienced Symptoms of a Mild, Flu-like Illness
According to his viral post, Dr Lai had developed a runny nose and fever on 27 Sep. He isolated himself from his family and took an ART which came back negative.
The symptoms persisted, however, so he visited a GP where he underwent both an ART and PCR test. Both came back positive.
“The Covid fever lasted about 3x longer compared to a normal flu episode, but the symptoms were generally mild. I had a dry cough with runny nose, which took about 2 days to resolve. Recovery after the fever was smooth and unremarkable,’ he wrote.
While noting that he would have had it much worse if he weren’t vaccinated, Dr Lai believes we should change our mindset around COVID-19.
“COVID is a serious infection but not a life-threatening illness for most, and recovery is usually complete,” he said.
“There is no need [to] feel shame or be stigmatized when we get infected – which is why I am writing this post to emphasize this.”
You can read his viral post here:
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Featured Image: Facebook (Lai Kah Weng)
