Woman hurt by falling tree branch

A woman was seriously injured yesterday when a 4m-long tree branch fell on her.

Ms Cao Yan Yan, a 32-year-old engineer from China, was walking on a footpath along Bendemeer Road on her way to work when it happened.

The freak accident happened at about 9.45am, said the police. The weather was sunny and calm at the time.

The branch from a 10-storey-tall tree left Ms Cao with a deep gash above her right eye and appeared to have hurt her right arm as well, eyewitnesses told evening paper Shin Min Daily News.

Witnesses said she was conscious but bleeding from her injuries, and crying out in pain. The Singapore Civil Defence Force took her by ambulance to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Last night, Ms Cao's husband told The Straits Times that doctors were keeping his wife under close observation, as she had suffered bleeding in the brain from the accident.

The deep cut above her eyebrow had been stitched closed, he added.

"They are hoping there won't be any swelling of the brain, or they might have to operate on her," Mr Lin, also 32, said in Mandarin. He added that doctors had kept his wife in the Intensive Care Unit for about two hours after she arrived at the hospital, and that he managed to see her only at about 1pm.

She is currently in the Neurological Intensive Care Unit.

Mr Lin said the couple had been working in Singapore for the past five years. "I am just hoping that she recovers soon," he said.

The tree, which is on land owned by JTC Corporation, was inspected in January and found to be healthy, said a spokesman for the industrial developer. "As a safety precaution, we have further checked another six neighbouring trees under JTC and did extra pruning works on them," she added.

Falling trees and branches in Singapore have killed four people and injured more than 60 in the past decade.

yanliang@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on May 23, 2014.
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