Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat 'feeling great', apologises for not being able to attend NDP

Finance Minister Heng Sweet speaking to a doctor on the day he was discharged from Tan Tock Seng Hospital. PHOTO: HENG SWEE KEAT/FACEBOOK

SINGAPORE - Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, who is recuperating at home after suffering a stroke in May, said he would not be able to attend tonight's National Day Parade to avoid catching a new infection which could set back the recovery process.

"The doctors say I must avoid crowded places. While I was in intensive care, I had a lung infection," he wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday (Aug 9).

"I feel great now, been keeping up the rehab in between reading papers from MOF (Ministry of Finance) and the CFE (Committee on the Future Economy), but the doctors say the lungs take time to recover fully and a new infection could set back that process."

He added that he would probably do his stretches and exercises while catching the NDP on television at home.

Mr Heng, who is MP for Tampines GRC, also uploaded a photo of residents giving two thumbs up at the National Day dinner - which he was also unable to attend - at Tampines Central recently.

"They remembered that when PM (Lee Hsien Loong) visited me when I was still in hospital, I gave PM two thumbs up. So now the Tampines family is giving me two thumbs up too. Very sweet of them," he said.

He also thanked everyone for their warm wishes and prayers and words, including his fellow Tampines MPs, grassroots activists and Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam for covering his duties.

Mr Heng is currently on medical leave after he collapsed during a Cabinet meeting on May 12 from a stroke due to an aneurysm, a localised weakening of a blood vessel.

He underwent a successful endovascular coil embolisation - surgery to seal off the aneurysm - on the same day of the stroke, and was discharged from hospital on June 25.

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