Aid hammers needle in own stomach

		Thu, Nov 06, 2008 The New Paper
By Arul John and Chong Shin Yen SHE was so desperate to go home that she used a rolling pin to hammer a 5cm-long sewing needle into her stomach. Indonesian maid Dwi Susilowati foolishly thought that if she fell sick, her maid agency would write off her debt and send her home to Solo in central Java. The needle did not seem to have any immediate effect, so the next day, on 27 Oct, the 23-year-old drank two cups of detergent powder mixed with water. DESPERATE: Miss Dwi used a rolling pin to hammer a needle into herself. An X-ray showed it had been embedded somewhere between her stomach and chest. When her employer found out about the needle that night, she immediately took her to see a doctor. An X-ray showed that it had pierced her liver and was lodged in it. Miss Dwi underwent surgery on 28 Oct to remove the needle and was warded for three days. The incident happened about six weeks after she arrived here to work as a maid. It was her first time here. Miss Dwi told The New Paper she had taken the needle from her employer's sewing kit and hammered it into her stomach in the kitchen of the Simei flat. She said: 'I never thought of the pain. My mind was just focused on going back. I was homesick and I just wanted to return to Indonesia to my family. I was stressed and not thinking straight when I hurt myself.' Miss Dwi, who is single, said she resorted to such foolish extremes because she wanted to make herself sick and unable to work. 'If my injuries were not severe, I would most likely be transferred to another employer and would have to continue working in Singapore, and I did not want that.' 'I wanted to make myself sick enough so that I would be sent home. Then I wouldn't be made to pay back the money I owed to the maid agency.' Miss Dwi, who borrowed $2,500 to come here, had left Singapore and said she did not want to work overseas again. Her employer, Mrs Valerie Tan, 32, a financial planner, said Miss Dwi had told her she felt nauseous and had a stomachache, but did not reveal what she had done to herself. 'She did not want to see a doctor, so I told her to rest in her room,' said Mrs Tan, who communicated with Miss Dwi in a mixture of English and Malay. Then, on that Deepavali evening, Mrs Tan's son, 13, told her that Miss Dwi 'wants to go home' and handed her a note, written in a mixture of English and Bahasa Indonesia, which the maid had given him. It said: 'Sorry Madam, I won't mati (die in Malay), this morning needle sudah I in stomach. Madam I can't work here because I sick... I want stay at home Indonesia with family (sic).' Mrs Tan sad she was shocked when she saw Miss Dwi wearing her maid agency T-shirt and standing next to her packed luggage. 'I asked her if there was really a needle in her stomach as I couldn't see any poking out. 'I tried to get her to show me where the needle was but we couldn't communicate. She told me she had accidentally knocked into a wall and the needle got in.' Mrs Tan took Miss Dwi to a clinic nearby and was advised her to send her for an X-ray as the needle could travel through her blood and fatally pierce her heart. They went to Changi General Hospital's accident and emergency department, where an X-ray was taken. 'The X-ray showed a 5cm-long needle embedded somewhere between her stomach and chest. The doctor said the needle had pierced her left liver but fortunately did not damage it.' Miss Dwi was warded immediately and operated on the next day. 'Not enough rest' After her operation, she confessed to the hospital's counsellor and medical social worker that the injury had been self-inflicted. Said Mrs Tan: 'She told them that she had used the rolling pin found in my kitchen to hammer a needle into herself on 26 Oct.' While Miss Dwi was warded, Mrs Tan came across a four-page letter, dated 22 Oct, which she had written to her parents to complain about how different it was working in Singapore compared to her village. Her duties included cooking, cleaning and looking after Mrs Tan's 3-year-old daughter. Miss Dwi wrote in Bahasa Indonesia: 'My second employer treated me well but my work is never-ending and I could not get enough rest.' She said she would get leg cramps while working and she missed her boyfriend back home. 'I was told by the agency that I would not be getting my salary for the first nine months and I don't understand why,' she wrote. Miss Dwi told The New Paper that her parents are farmers. After finishing high school in 2002, she helped the family by selling vegetables at a market. Her parents' house has bare amenities and she did little housework and cooking back home. She arrived here on 16 Sep and asked for a transfer after 10 days with her first employer as she found it hard to look after the children and his aged mother. Mrs Tan said that when she and her husband first met Miss Dwi, she was all smiles. She spoke little English but had seemed eager to work. 'To communicate better with her, we signed up for courses to learn conversational Malay,' said Mrs Tan. But it was a different story when they took her home to their five-room flat in Simei on 14 Oct. Miss Dwi, whom the family called Wati, looked troubled and unhappy and three days later told Mrs Tan that she missed home. Said Mrs Tan: 'I thought that was normal as my previous maid was also homesick at first. I told Wati she was now part of my family and could also treat us like her family. That seemed to pacify her.' Listless But, she added, Miss Dwi later became more listless and looked like she was 'in her own world' until the needle incident. Mrs Tan paid Miss Dwi's hospital bill of about $5,000 and sent her to her maid agency, Nation Employment, after her discharge last Thursday. When contacted, Mr Richard Ong, 50, a manager at Nation, said that Miss Dwi had asked for a transfer while working for her first employer. 'She did not tell the agency that she wanted to go back to Indonesia. If we'd known, we wouldn't have made her stay on in Singapore,' he said. 'There is no point keeping her here if she is reluctant to work. As for the money she owed, it would be between her and the Indonesian agency (which had arranged for her to come here).' Mr Ong said his agency has counsellors to help maids overcome their homesickness and adjust to life in Singapore. He said that before Miss Dwi left for home last Friday, he took her to the Indonesian Embassy here where she wrote an undertaking stating that she had not been forced to stay on and that she had not told the agency earlier of her wish to go home. Nation has arranged another maid for Mrs Tan, who is still reeling from what happened. 'It's really disturbing to think of what Wati had done to herself. I didn't know she was so emotionally unstable and so desperate to leave Singapore,' she said. 'I can't imagine what would happen if I'd kept her longer. She could have snapped and hurt my family.' SHE GROWS UNHAPPY 16 SEP TO 28 SEP: Miss Dwi Susilowati works for first employer but asks for a transfer as she can't handle workload. 14 OCT: She starts work for Mrs Valerie Tan. 26 OCT: In an attempt to 'fall sick', she uses rolling pin to hammer sewing needle into stomach. 27 OCT: When it did not seem to work, she drinks two cups of detergent (far right) mixed with water. She later tells Mrs Tan about needle in her stomach. 28 OCT: Miss Dwi has surgery to remove needle. 30 OCT: She is discharged and sent back to maid agency. 31 OCT: Agency takes her to Indonesian Embassy where she writes undertaking stating that she was not forced to work here. She's then sent back to Indonesia. This article was first published in The New Paper on Nov 4, 2008.