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A message for Ah Bun: don't give up

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Patient who wants to die needs hope instead, says doctor

The doctor caring for a quadriplegic patient who is asking for permission to die yesterday appealed for others suffering a similar plight to help change his patient's mind.

Poon Tak-lun also told of his pain at seeing his patient, nicknamed Ah Bun, so severely injured in the prime of his life.

Ah Bun, whose appeal to Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and legislators was made public on Monday, has been paralysed from the neck down since an accident in 1991. Dr Poon, a consultant in orthopaedic surgery at Queen Mary Hospital, has been treating him ever since and has become his friend.

Speaking for the first time since Ah Bun's appeal for the legalisation of euthanasia came to light, Dr Poon said Ah Bun's problem was 'spiritual'.

'If he can be in contact with other people with the same problem - [for example] a paraplegic who has a very meaningful life and can say one can have a bright future - it might help,' he said.

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