IT WAS their usual routine. He would take a shower before getting ready for work, while his wife prepared dinner.

But on Wednesday evening, tragedy struck.

Mr Zainudin Said was found unconscious on the bathroom floor.

Mr Said's older brother, who declined to be named, said: 'He never got to enjoy the dinner his wife prepared for him.'

Speaking to The New Paper at the void deck of his brother's Bedok Reservoir Road flat on Thursday evening, he described what had happened.

Mr Zainudin's wife had got worried when he took much longer than usual in the bathroom.

'His wife knocked on the door, but there was no answer. That was when she realised something was wrong.'

The bathroom door was made

of polyvinyl chloride, commonly known as PVC, a light material, so

Mr Zainudin's wife was able to force it open with the help of two of her children.

When she saw what had happened to her husband, she ran to seek help from her next-door neighbour.

CRYING

The neighbour, who also declined to be named, said: 'She was crying as she asked me to help her carry her husband out from the toilet.'

The neighbour and her 14-year-old son rushed to Mr Zainudin's flat.

They saw Mr Zainudin sprawled on the bathroom floor.

She added: 'His wife was panic-stricken. She was crying and kept calling out to him. But he didn't answer her.'

She said Mr Zainudin, whom she described as tall and thin, was 'breathing quite fast, his body felt hot, as though he had a fever'.

They did not see any wounds on his body.

The neighbour and her son then helped Mr Zainudin's wife and son to carry him out of the bathroom.

'I was really scared while we were carrying him out. I was very worried for him,' said the woman, who had been Mr Zainudin's neighbour for more than seven years.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force was alerted at 7.40pm. A spokesman said Mr Zainudin was unconscious when he was taken to Changi General Hospital.

The neighbour said she had planned to visit Mr Zainudin in hospital on Thursday, but it was too late by then.

That afternoon, his wife called her to tell her that he had died.

Said the neighbour: 'It is such a pity. He was a good, hard-working man, and was the sole breadwinner of the family.'

Mr Zainudin would take on additional part-time work to earn more money for his wife and three children, a daughter aged 22, and two sons, 19, and 12.

His elder son, a student at ITE Tampines who declined to be named, was not at home when the incident happened.

He said: 'I was shocked when I heard the news. I cried.'

Mr Zainudin's brother, who also did not want to be named, said: 'I just went to the hospital to see him. But then, suddenly, he's not there any more.

'His wife is so sad, she doesn't leave the room, and keeps crying.'.