Bank places profit before care

Community nurse, Siti Zurina Hassan, 34 has made numerous appeals to a bank here to allow her to withdraw the balance in her stricken husband’s account since 2008, all to nought.

She has even attached supporting medical reports of her husband’s condition in her appeal letter to the bank.

Siti Zurina’s husband, Md Halim Hamid, 41, has been lying in coma for the last four years after a road accident in 2007.

According to her, the bank has used her husband’s savings towards paying off a car and housing loan when her husband went into coma after the road accident. The bank is still withholding her husband’s account bank balance of RM58,000.

She has approached Bank Negara for help but was told that the matter is at the discretion of her husband’s bank.

Siti Zurina said the bank should have some compassion, as she needs the money to pay for the costs of her husband’s medical care.

Currently, contributions from the Social Welfare Department, Baitumal and Socso help in lightening her financial burden.

She is the sole breadwinner of the family, which includes three children. She says she has to come home every four hours to feed her husband milk, and has done this for the last four years.

Meanwhile, the supervisor of the Permas zone public complaint centre, Syed Othman Syed Abdullah, said that all relevant documents have been forwarded to Siti Zurina’s appointed lawyer.

He has been reported as saying that the Siti Zurina is willing to meet with the bank to find a solution, failing which the family will take up a court injunction.

The local branch manager of the bank,  when contacted by Komunitikini, said that the branch do not have the authority to comment of the matter and asked the family to refer its Kuala Lumpur head office.

Attempts to contact the bank’s head office went unanswered.