THE four fingers of his left hand have been reduced to stumps. He lost a toe from his left foot.
It could have been worse.
He could have lost a leg too, his doctor told him.
The reason: Ah Bon, as he prefers to be known, abused Subutex and a cocktail of other drugs over a period of time.
He only wants his nickname to be used because he is scared that he will be identified.
'I didn't know it would lead to this,' he said in Mandarin.
He added: 'Since it was legal at that time, I thought that it would be safe.'
Subutex was classified an illegal drug in August this year.
Ah Bon told The New Paper: 'I hope you tell my story to others. Don't mess with drugs.
'They (the abusers) don't realise how harmful it is.'
He has been undergoing rehabilitation for the past month at Christian Care Services Centre, a halfway house for drug addicts.
Data from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) reveal that since 2003, the number of Chinese addicts being arrested for drug abuse has been rising each year compared to the other races here.
When The New Paper met Ah Bon at the halfway house earlier this month, the 43-year-old was still in pain and his wounds were still raw.
There were bandages on his left knee and left foot.
Ah Bon was admitted to the National University Hospital (NUH) several times because of health problems associated with drug abuse.
In August, parts of his four fingers had to be removed and a toe had to be amputated because gangrene had set in.
He said his drug problem worsened when his 71-year-old mother had a heart attack in September last year.
SORROW
He had already switched from heroin to a cocktail of prescription drugs in 2004, but he increased the dosage to overcome his sorrow.
After a few weeks of heavy abuse, he ran into problems.
Said Ah Bon: 'By that time, I was having difficulties locating the veins on my wrists so I poked the needles into the 'highway'.'
He showed The New Paper the deep incision scar on the left side of his torso between his waist and groin.
'That's the 'highway',' he said, pointing to the 15cm-long deeply hollowed flesh above his groin.
He said he reached a point when he wanted to die. By then, his fingers and toes had become purple and were swollen. Pus began to seep out and there was a bad odour.
His legs blackened and there was poor circulation.
For Ah Bon, help came only when he hit rock bottom. He was found unconscious somewhere along Alexandra Road last October.
A passerby took him to Alexandra Hospital, and he was later transferred to NUH. He spent five months there.
The doctor had to cut deep into the area above his groin because there was severe gangrene and the blood vessels were clogged up.
Any delay, his leg would have to be amputated.
Dr Leslie Leong, orthopaedic specialist at Changi General Hospital (CGH), said it's common for subutex addicts like Ah Bon to lose fingers and toes.
Dr Leong told The New Paper: 'There is a greater tendency for the injected chemicals to accumulate at the fingers and toes because the blood vessels there are finer and are less tolerant of blockage.'
Dr Leong was involved in studying Subutex abuse 'due to the large number of patients that registered in the past one year'.
When The New Paper met Ah Bon, he was still having difficulty walking.
He left school at 12 because he had failed his Primary 6 exams. By 16, he was smoking heroin.
He said: 'My friends introduced me to it (heroin) and it was easily available at that time.'
He said he initially worked as a painter, but after getting hooked on drugs, he stopped working and did whatever it took to get money to buy drugs, including 'lying, begging, cheating and stealing'.
He has been in and out of prison so many times that he has lost count. His last jail time was in 2000 for a four-year period for heroin addiction.
He said he is estranged from his family except his late mother. He has five siblings.
He said she never gave up on him and was the only one who visited him in prison and spoke to him kindly.
He said he lives with his family, but claimed his siblings do not talk to him.
Without his drugs during a one-month period at NUH in August, Ah Bon suffered withdrawal symptoms, which included hot and cold spells, vomiting, diarrhoea and insomnia.
He now claims he has overcome his addiction.
Said Ah Bon: 'I have learnt my lesson the hard way. I don't want to lose any more limbs.'
But Reverend Edward Job, the executive director of Christian Care Services, said: 'Addiction is a long-term problem. Although Ah Bon said he has quit, the moment he goes outside, he becomes vulnerable. We need to help him overcome the psychological effects of drugs.'
Meanwhile, CGH said the number of Subutex abusers 'have declined substantially since the government crackdown'.
But it did not give any figures.