SECONDARY 3 student Yew Zhi Hao had never been seriously ill.
But on Monday, just three days after he came down with a high fever, the gifted student and keen soccer player was dead.
Neither doctors nor his parents know what killed him, said his parents.
In fact, the Raffles Institution boy was fine last Thursday, the day before he became feverish, and had been busy preparing for his examinations two weeks away.
His father Yew Kok Seng, 52, a deputy chief executive of a computer firm, related the sequence of events that led to his only child's death.
When Zhi Hao, 15, suddenly fell ill last Friday, he said, he and his wife took him to a nearby clinic.
'With the medicine, the fever subsided but the next day, he started vomiting and couldn't eat or drink.'
As the first clinic was shut, the parents took him to another one, where he was prescribed more medicine.
But while Zhi Hao's vomiting stopped, his fever returned on Monday morning.
Mr Yew said: 'He was perspiring, and coughing and there was blood in his phlegm.
'We went back to the second doctor and got medicine for his infected throat. But his condition worsened. He was foaming at the mouth and could not breathe properly.
'He told us that he was was losing consciousness and then went into a coma and never woke up.'
The parents later took him back to the doctor, who tried to revive him, and sent him to Changi General Hospital. But Zhi Hao died in hospital at 1.20pm.
About 80 schoolmates and teachers were at his wake at Sin Ming Drive yesterday.
Mrs J. Selvan, who taught Zhi Hao last year, said: 'He was an exemplary student, meticulous in his work, polite and helpful, and did not boast or show off.'
His father said that Zhi Hao was a remarkable pupil even in St Hilda's Primary School, where he was selected for the gifted stream when he was in Primary 4.
Fluent in English and Mandarin, he won the Prime Minister's Book Prize in Primary 6 and was one of the top scorers in the Primary School Leaving Examination.
He then went to Raffles Institution. But he was no bookworm. He had been an avid footballer for more than eight years.
In fact, his father bought him a football several weeks ago after he qualified for the National University of Singapore's tutelage programme for talented students.
'We will cremate him with the ball as he was very into football,' said Mr Yew.
Both father and son are fans of English Premiership side Manchester United.
His parents are trying to cope with their loss.
When Mr Yew saw teachers and schoolmates in tears, he said: 'Please don't cry and don't call out for him to return, for Zhi Hao has lived his life and should go to heaven unhindered.'
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