Teen sleepswalk out of window.
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Ming Mao showing how he must have climbed out of his kitchen window while sleepwalking and fallen out of it, breaking all four limbs.
Although Gan Eng Seng Secondary student Ho Ming Mao broke all his limbs in the fall, he can consider himself fortunate on both counts.
Not only did he survive the fall last April, he also recovered in time to sit for his O levels.
And he did well enough to qualify for polytechnic education.
However, he had to overcome pain and discomfort when he sat for his Mother Tongue paper in May while he was wheelchair-bound and still recovering from his horrific injuries.
Recalling the fall, Ming Mao said he had a fever and had taken a pill before going to bed at midnight.
CAN'T REMEMBER
He does not remember sleepwalking to the kitchen, where he climbed onto the window and plunged to the ground.
'All I can remember was half-squatting, half-standing by the kitchen window,' he told The New Paper.
'My right foot was on one of the bamboo poles. I was already on the verge of falling.
'The moment I fell, I tried to grab on to the bamboo poles but they broke.'
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Ming Mao fell out this window during a sleepwalking episode. -- Pictures: KUA CHEE SIONG
He landed painfully on his feet, which bore most of the impact. Ming Mao shattered both heels and also broke both his arms, including his right index finger.
Ming Mao, then 17, needed two operations and was hospitalised for nine days at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH).
The incident happened around 1am when he was home with his sister, Miss Rebecca Ho, who sleeps in the lower deck of their double-decker bed.
She had just returned home and was puzzled why her younger brother was climbing up and down the bed.
Then, she saw him walking to the kitchen and heard the lights being turned on.
Miss Ho, 21, a Nanyang Technological University student, thought he was going to the toilet.
However, the kitchen was unusually quiet. Her parents were out having supper, and no one else was at home.
Feeling something amiss, MissHo checked the toilet and found it empty.
It was then that she spotted the kitchen window wide open.
When she looked out, she got the shock of her life.
There, three storeys below their HDB three-room flat, was her brother, sprawled on the pavement, groaning in pain. Also strewn on the ground were clothes and broken bamboo poles.
STUNNED
Miss Ho said she was so shocked at seeing her brother at the foot of the block that she could only think of blurting out: 'What are you doing down there?'
'I fell,' her brother replied.
'Pain or not?'
'Of course pain lah.'
Miss Ho rushed back to the hall to call her parents, who were on their way home by that time. They called for an ambulance.
Ming Mao, a Sec 5 (NA) student, was wheelchair-bound for about two months, and returned to school only at the end of July.
In the months that followed, not only was the boy in agony, he was also terrified of going to bed.
Said Ming Mao: 'For a few months after the incident, I was afraid to sleep because I did not know what I would do if I sleepwalked again.'
But despite the trauma, he eventually scored 19 points for his language and best four subjects to qualify for polytechnic.
He had scored six points for his best three subjects in the N levels the year before.
But Ming Mao had to sit for his Mother Tongue examination in a wheelchair in May.
While he had regained use of his hands, he could only write slowly as his right hand still had a metal insertion which made it difficult and painful to write.
As a result, he was given additional time for the exam.
In July, the stitches on his feet were removed.
Ming Mao said: 'I had to learn how to walk all over again. My legs were very weak and each step was painful.'
Even now, he says that his feet still hurt if he stands or walks for a long period of time.
By the time Ming Mao returned to school, the teachers had finished the syllabus and were starting on revision.
They offered to help him in the comfort of his home, but Ming Mao declined as he did not want to trouble his teachers.
He got a B3 grade for his Mother Tongue exam.
Asked if he is satisfied with the results, Ming Mao said he had hoped to get a score of 15 or below.
Still, considering what he went through, he is thankful for the way things have turned out.
This is not the first time Ming Mao has allegedly sleepwalked.
When he was 12 years old, a similar incident occurred.
On that occasion, he went back to bed after his family members persuaded him to do so.
Miss Ho recalled: 'He was also having fever that day and had gone to bed early. We were having dinner in the kitchen when he walked in.
'He just picked up a saucer of chilli on the table and examined it closely. When we asked him what he was doing, he did not reply and went back to sleep.'
They did not link his actions to sleepwalking then, and thought nothing of it.
Since the incident last April, Ming Mao's family now takes extra precautions and keeps the windows locked.
Today, he still has to go back to the SGH for check-ups.
But he can stand, walk and do most everyday things, except play soccer, his favourite sport.
'Sometimes my friends will forget, and ask me to join them. Then they'd remember. That's when I'll feel so left out.'
