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Woman who slapped pregnant doctor given mandatory treatment order

Singapore state courts (Yahoo News Singapore file photo)
Singapore state courts (Yahoo News Singapore file photo)

When a female doctor refused her request to have surgery for menstrual pains on medical grounds, Elizerbeth Chua Hui Ping became enraged and slapped the heavily pregnant doctor.

Chua, a 27-year-old Singaporean, also tried to grab the doctor but was prevented from doing so by a senior staff nurse and a nurse manager.

A week later, Chua, who works at McDonald’s, got into a dispute with her mother over the adoption of kittens and threw a chair at the 63-year-old woman, who managed to dodge it.

For her offences, Chua was sentenced to a mandatory treatment order (MTO) on Tuesday (19 June). An MTO is a community sentencing option lasting up to 36 months for offenders suffering from mental conditions. Chua will receive psychiatric treatment in lieu of jail time.

According to her lawyer Ranadhir Gupta, Chua has an extensive psychiatric history and has been admitted to the Institute of Mental Health for a series of suicide attempts and aggression towards others.

She was first referred to IMH’s Child Guidance Clinic in 2006, when she was 16, after she bit, scratched and punched a student and teacher. She was then assessed to have low average intelligence, low self-esteem and anger management issues.

Chua earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of voluntarily causing hurt and one count of breaching a personal protection order issued on 3 May 2016 to protect her mother against her. One count of committing a rash act and one of voluntarily causing hurt were considered for her sentence.

On 3 November 2016, Chua visited Dr Ma Li, a doctor at the National University Hospital, for severe menstrual pains. She requested for surgery for her condition but Dr Ma replied that there was no need for surgery, as it would cause more harm than good.

Hearing this, Chua flew into a rage, prompting the two nurses to intervene. Chua slapped Dr Ma and tried to grab the doctor but was restrained by the two nurses. Chua scratched and bit the nurses before she was restrained in a wheelchair.

A week later, on 10 November 2016, Chua’s mother, Soh Chai Lan, discovered that her daughter wanted to adopt four cats. Two individuals turned up at the family’s flat with the cats. As Soh objected to the idea, mother and daughter got into a scuffle.

When Soh started ignoring Chua, the latter became angry and threw a dining chair with a metal frame at her mother. Chua then swallowed some vitamin pills and cut her wrist with a pen knife, threatening to die in front of her mother.

In another incident, Chua got into another altercation with a registrar at Tan Tock Seng Hospital on 12 January last year when she turned up at the emergency department with her father. Claiming that her stomach was hurting, Chua insisted on being admitted and was kept for observation for a few hours.

When the registrar concluded that Chua was fit for discharge, she became aggressive towards her father and the nurses. She insisted on being admitted again and lunged at the registrar, scratching his arms before being pulled away.