Former Singapore Tatler Managing Director Gilbert Cheah has put up two Facebook posts calling for donations towards the treatment of a 19-month-old Vietnamese baby girl Hoai Thuong who is currently undergoing treatment for hydrocephalus at Gleneagles hospital.

Hydrocephalus is a "congenital swelling of the head" caused by an accumulation of excess cerebrospinal fluid in the brain.

According to Cheah, Hoai is actually one out of eight babies undergoing treatment for hydrocephalus at Gleneagles.

However, Hoai's case is by far the most serious, and also the case in greatest need of funds for her medical bills.

In all, Hoai's bills have cost aroud S$262,000 so far, with an additional S$100,000 required for further treatment to ensure her survival.

Bills have been paid by Vietnamese donors so far

In his first Facebook post on Sept. 21, Cheah states that over S$220,000 required for Hoai's medical care has thus far been paid for by Vietnamese donors.

Hoai's family is unable to pay for the bills as she comes from a single-parent family, with her father having passed away when Hoai was two months old.

Cheah has since confirmed with Mothership.sg that Hoai's mother is also in Singapore with her child, sleeping in the hospital room. She has not left since Hoai was first admitted.

According to Cheah's initial post, Hoai's first round of major surgery took place in November 2017.

Subsequently, Cheah put up a second post on Sept. 24 explaining the severity of Hoai's situation -- her head is too heavy for her to move it and the pressure exerted by the excess fluid is causing her spine to curve.Cheah further stated to Mothership.sg that thus far, both posts have managed to raise around S$40,000 of the additional S$100,000 that is required, with at least up to S$10,000 coming from an anonymous donor.

How did he end up championing her cause?

For Cheah, it was through the discovery of a kindred philanthropic spirit -- a Vietnamese woman known as Nguyen Thi Thao Huong "who has been helping dozens of Vietnamese babies in need of medical help."

According to Cheah, Nguyen:

"...is married to a Singaporean (they both live here) and they have three kids and she and her husband spend all their free time raising funds from Vietnamese donors to bring seriously ill children to Singapore for life-saving surgery.

Together with other charitable groups in Vietnam, Nguyen has helped to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars (possibly millions) over the past several years and saved many lives through their efforts."

Cheah and Nguyen's meeting occurred when Cheah "read about a baby boy from Vietnam who was born with congenital glaucoma and was going blind." 

Accordingly, Cheah decided to raise money for the boy to come to Singapore for surgery as a "good friend of [Cheah's] is one of the region's top specialist surgeons for childhood glaucoma."

Upon reaching out to the family however, he was told to contact Nguyen, who, as it turns out, had already been coordinating the donations for this family.

His subsequent encounter her led him to the case of Hoai, whom Nguyen asked Cheah for help as funds from Vietnamese donors had already run dry.

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Cheah adds that on Monday, Sept. 24, he accompanied Nguyen around Gleneagles as she settled the payments of the eight Vietnamese infants warded there, along with taking videos of the children to send to the various donors.

[video width="736" height="1312" mp4="https://static.mothership.sg/1/2018/09/Vietnamesegirlhospitalvid.mp4"][/video]

A passion for helping the less-fortunate

As for Cheah himself, his philanthropic passion is well-known.

As reported by Southeast Asia Globe in an interview with Cheah, during his time as Managing Director of Singapore Tatler, the intensive networking aspect of his job made Cheah view his position as an opportunity to convey across several messages to Tatler's high-net worth readers.

One of these messages was the need to give back to society:

"I'm a big believer in the saying that: 'To those who have been given much, much is expected from'".

It would not be a stretch to say that it was this belief which led Cheah to his eventual meeting with Nguyen.

Kudos to such people in our society.

Where to donate

As stated in both of Cheah's posts, should you wish to donate to Hoai's medical treatment, you may do so at this link here.

Note that the displayed amount of $8391.40 is, according to Nguyen the outstanding amount for the current bill, which is one out of many bills sent by the hospital.

Source: Gilbert Cheah Facebook

Top image collage from Gilbert Cheah Facebook