The parents who sued a private psychiatrist and the Institute of Mental Health for S$3.3 million over alleged negligence linked to their son's suicide have settled for a sum of S$330,000.
Mr Steven Joseph Arokiasamy, a 68-year-old retiree who previously worked with the Ministry of Defence, and Madam Tan Kin Tee, a 67-year-old part-time teacher, had sued Dr Nelson Lee Boon Chuan and IMH for S$3.3 million. These amounts do not include a sum of about S$56,000 already paid to him, nor another S$40,000 in costs to be paid to the defendants for a discontinued action against a second psychiatrist.
He said it appeared that they claimed that their son was prescribed the wrong medication, was not properly attended to and was wrongly diagnosed as suffering from depression and not schizophrenia. He cited a previous document from November 2020 that estimated the fee for Mr Rai's law firm, inclusive of trial, to be about S$150,000.