The blood that seeped through the ceiling of a Tampines Housing Board flat last Tuesday (29 January), which led to the discovery of an elderly man’s body in the unit above, was not due to an issue with the ceiling’s structural integrity.
But rather, it happened because of the porous nature of the concrete ceiling, Tampines GRC MP Baey Yam Keng told The Straits Times (ST) on Monday (4 February).
“So there should not be anything wrong with it. Only the toilet area would have a waterproof membrane in the ceiling to keep water from passing through,” he noted.
Mr Baey was updating on the case in which a 77-year-old man was found dead in a Tampines Street 43 flat, and the blood from his decomposing body had seeped through the floor and dripped from the ceiling of his neighbour’s unit below. Mr Baey added that he had seen similar cases before.
The neighbour, who wanted to be addressed as Ms Jamilah, made the gruesome discovery after noticing a strange stench in her flat that traced to the dark red liquid dripping from the ceiling of her master bedroom.
The police were called in and investigation revealed that the man died of natural causes.
The ceiling of Ms Jamilah’s bedroom has since been repainted, said Mr Baey in an Instagram post, adding: “Although it was not a pleasant experience, Ms Jamilah took it in her stride.”
Mr Baey told ST that HDB repainted Ms Jamilah’s ceiling on Saturday, and when he visited her on the same day, it “looked as good as new”. The repainting was done out of goodwill by HDB and could only be done when the blood had stopped dripping and dried.
The MP also noted that he visited the wake of the 77-year-old man, known only as Mr Ho, and his children revealed that their father died of a heart attack.
Mentioning this information to ST, Mr Baey also said that Mr Ho insisted on living alone as he had not wanted to leave all his good friends in the neighbourhood, which he would have to do so if he moved in with his children.
However, even after reading Mr Baey explanation, many netizens are totally unconvinced with the clarification. Some are saying that waterproof feature should be part of building quality structure.
But, Facebook user Andy Fong said that water proofing are only done for wet areas and not on the entire floor.
