Pei Shan was a teenage girl trapped in a baby’s body, not because she felt like it, but because hers was literally a baby’s body.
Sadly, after years of struggling with her condition, she succumbed to her illness on July 19.
“Her condition, which she had battled since she was four months old, had robbed her of the ability to walk or breathe on her own, and had severely stunted her growth,” says a report by The New Paper.
“Although doctors did not diagnose her exact medical condition, Pei Shan’s medical record reads Mucopolysaccharidosis Type III (MPS III)—a progressive disorder that affects the brain and spinal cord.”
Doctors even told her parents a few years ago that Pei Shan wouldn’t live beyond her her teenage years.
Photo credit: The New Paper
Despite her disability, Pei Shan lived her life to the fullest. Her favorite hobby included painting and playing the piano.
In fact, she even performed at a concert organized by by the Beautiful Mind Charity at the Singapore School of The Arts.
The tragedy of Pei Shan’s family began earlier in January, when the teen asked her parents to send her to the hospital because she hadn’t been feeling well.
At first her condition seemed to improve, and her parents hoped to be able to take their daughter home.
“She was well on Sunday and we were very hopeful. But things started going downhill yesterday [July 19],” her father, Mr. Teo, said in the TNP story.
Pei Shan struggled to breathe, gasping for air. Doctors then gave her morphine, but despite this her oxygen levels plummeted.
“Although she struggled at first, the morphine calmed her and she died peacefully. We were by her side, holding her tight,” said Madam Chew, Pei Shan’s mother. “She couldn’t speak in her last moments. But in her last days, she was still cheerful and upbeat, and would always reassure us that she loved us.”
Caring for her daughter had forced her to quit her job as a bank clerk when Pei Shan was nine-months-old.
“It had always been the three of us, we did everything as a family,” Mr. Teo said. “We would take Pei Shan out in her stroller but now it’ll be empty. It’s just the two of us now, we don’t know what to do without her.”
Photo credit: The New Paper
During her final moments, Pei Shan had requested that her wake’s theme be after her favorite cartoon character, My Melody.
“She wanted her wake to be a celebration filled with music,” her father said. “She wanted people to be happy.”
Founder of charity Portrait From The Heart, Mr. Lawrence Loh, who also happened to be a family friend, was at the hospital the night Pei Shan passed, helping her family with funeral arrangements.
“Whenever it was my birthday, Pei Shan would send me a WhatsApp message to wish me or even ask her parents to record a video of her singing a birthday song for me,” he said. “Even in her short life, she gave and taught us so much more than what we’d done for her.”
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