KUALA LUMPUR: A 24-year-old woman from Penang needs RM35,510.50 to pay for orthopaedic implants required for spinal fusion surgery after her adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) progressed to a 70-degree spinal curvature.
Tan Swee Yee's condition has worsened from a 40-degree curvature when she was 13 to 70 degrees. She now suffers from severe back pain, numbness in her left leg and difficulty standing or walking for prolonged periods.
"When I was 13, I noticed that my waist was slightly uneven compared with other people," she said.
She recalled that her elder sister, who was studying radiology at Universiti Malaya, was the first to suspect she had scoliosis.
