Medical student Death- a call for reflection

 Steven Ko Yiu Hing - tragic death

The tragic death of Steven Ko Yiu Hing,the medical student who was alleged to have fallen from fourth floor of his apartment came as a shock to the nation and  is a tragedy that his family will never be able to recover fully. His father, Dr. Ko Chung Beng, a successful medical practitioner believes his son’s death was due to dejection after deciding to give up his relationship with a girl which is really unfortunate.

As we sympathize with his family, it may be timely for us to reflect on the advice of the father, “My advice to parents is to spend more time with your children. Do not pamper them too much by giving them all they want. Otherwise they may not be able to take rejection, as there are some things that money can't buy.” It was a very touching to read of his advice which comes probably at the most difficult time in his life. While it may be too late for Dr.Ko, it is never late for us to learn from his experience.

  

As parents, we all make the same mistakes of not giving enough time for our children and     pampering them with all the comforts in life making them grow up without experiencing the stresses in the real world outside. We get carried away by the thought that everything can be made right with our wealth that we strived to accumulate over the years at the expense of the welfare of the children. We tend to overlook that our children need more than just the mere comforts in life which we struggle so hard to provide them. It may be timely for us to learn the bitter lesson which Dr.Ko says, “there are some things that money can't buy”. The most notable among them is love and affection.

“there are some things that money can't buy”.

As parents it is important to give all the love the children need as love in excess is never wasted in whatever form it may come. Parent’s love is the greatest asset we carry with us as we confront the many stresses and challenges in life. It is a weapon that we carry in us not realizing its worth until we meet some real crisis.

Love in the right form will reassure the children of a place to fall back when their hearts are troubled.Our children may not listen to us now but the love we give them and values that we impart to them by our examples are the seeds that will bear fruits later even when we are not there anymore.

We offer our deepest condolence to Dr.Ko and his family and pray that God bless them with courage and patience go through this very difficult time in their life.