Bleak future for amputee

WALKING with a slight limp in his right leg, 67-year-old Lee Swee Keat, an amputee, sighs with a heavy heart as he struggles to get by each day.

His life had been full of tragedies and he cannot do anything to make things better.

Not with his meagre salary of RM700 per month repairing fishing nets and doing odd jobs.

Tragedy for Lee, whose right leg was amputated due to uncontrolled diabetes, began when his only son died a few years ago.

Grateful: Dr Kong (centre) handing over the cheque for RM4,950 to Lee (right). On the left is Kampung Dato Seri Kamaruddin MCA division chief Foo Teng Song.

His wife, who suffered kidney failure over two years ago, requires weekly dialysis.

The former sawmill worker from Kampung Dato Seri Kamaruddin in Manjung continues to face an uncertain future as he walks with an old prosthetic leg.

The prosthetic leg Im wearing now is very uncomfortable and would sometimes fall off when I go out to fish, he said.

Lee added that having a prosthetic leg was vital for his survival as without it, he would not be able to ride his motorcycle and earn a living.

Hearing Lees plight, Lumut MP Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha recently applied for funds from the 1MCA Medical Foundation to help Lee get a new prosthetic leg.

I am ever grateful to Kong and the MCA for the money as I can now get a better prosthetic leg and work to ensure my wife and I have food on our table, said Lee, who received RM4,950 from Kong at his service centre in Lumut.

Kong also gave out allocations amounting to RM43,000 to 10 associations and another RM10,004 to 24 needy students and 20 needy individuals.

-The Star-