THE SAINT

A man gives what he had left away to others

Lee Leng Zai is a very charming man, with black hair , big eyes and a beard. But
what makes his patients love him more is his soothing voice, which can relax any
patient having a bad time, and is highly requested for injections for babies.
He is a nurse who serves at the Tan Tock Seng hospital for long hours everyday just
to tend to his patients.
As if nursing was not hard enough, Lee had to battle against cancer on his own.
He contracted cancer when he was 16, and aspired to be a nurse to give away what
he had left to other people, it is the reason they called him the "saint".
"He wanted to live a meaningful life" said his best friend.
Through his 30 years as a nurse, he's felt the highs and lows of life - from the joy of
patients' recovery, to the depths of grief over their deaths.
In his first incident,a young pregnant woman had to have a C-section and because
of complications, died on the table while her baby was delivered.
"It is something I will never forget. We all cried that day," Lee said of the incident.
"It taught me the importance of not taking life for granted."
In another case, one patient had become gradually paralysed after being diagnosed
with myasthenia gravis, a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease.
The patient could not do anything for herself except blink. But she recovered and
walked out of the hospital.
"It was then that it dawned on me how remarkable the human body is and the will
of the human spirit to live."
"The fact that she knew we were doing our best to care for her and she got better,
was reward in itself...
"These moments are the most satisfying. You feel all the difficult points in the
journey were nothing but a blot," he said.
"You feel that you want to fly - the joy of seeing that your care made a difference."
Nursing has given him the structure to assist others in a meaningful way, he said.

His patients feel motivated when they see him with a smile even though he was
suffering from cancer just like them.
He passed away at the age of 50 and all of his patients attended his funeral.
"It was a moment of absolute grieve, everyone cried."
Lee received the International Achievement Award given by the International
Council of Nurses' (ICN) Florence Nightingale International Foundation (FNIF).