It may have been almost seven years ago, but Ms D.G. Carole Ann still recalls the fateful morning in September 2018 when a searing pain in her womb jolted her awake.
Under immense and increasing pain, she called for an ambulance to take her to hospital, where she learnt from doctors that a cyst in one of her ovaries had ruptured, causing her to go into septic shock.
She was in an induced coma for two months, during which time her lungs collapsed, her kidneys stopped working and her heart stopped at least twice.
Ms Carole – who was intubated and spent more than four months in the intensive care unit – was given inotropes, a class of drugs used to treat patients with acute heart failure or septic shock. They saved her life but also turned her limbs gangrenous.
She resisted amputation for as long as she could, but finally had parts of all four limbs severed in August 2019.
Following the amputation, Ms Carole, now 47, said she took a while to get over her grief.
“Back then, if I had a choice, I would’ve lied down, rolled over, and just closed my eyes and did nothing,” she said. “Perhaps if I was 60 or 70 years old, I might have done that. But I was only 40.”
Today, the quadruple amputee – her hands, just after the wrists, and her legs, below the knees – is determined not to deny herself the best that life has to offer.
Currently a service quality officer at an IT firm, Ms Carole started working from home four years ago. Just before that, she had to learn how to use a keyboard and a smartphone without fingers – a larger-sized keyboard cost around $130, and an orb-shaped mouse was customised for her hands.
“I guess I would say that I’m lucky because I have also lived the life of an able-bodied person, and I understand how we sometimes take things for granted,” she said.
“And now, as a disabled person, I fight to do what able-bodied people can do easily.”
As she got used to her new life after a couple of years, Ms Carole began volunteering at Human Capital Singapore, which trains people with disabilities in HR roles such as payment, recruitment and scholarship administration. After being trained, they get work experience within the company, before being deployed to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Her volunteer efforts towards disability awareness led to her becoming a recipient of the Goh Chok Tong Enable Awards in 2023.
And she’s not stopping there.
Ms Carole has since tried her hand at acting, and will play a supporting role as a cafe manager in the Mediacorp teleseries Provocative. The episode is set to be aired early this year.
“My story can have continuity, no? Or does it just stop here?” she said with a laugh.
“My advice to others who are disabled: We’ve got to advocate for ourselves. Find a way out, build relationships, and before you know it, you’ll be working and coping with everything. You’ll be surprised.”
