Hotel staff win awards for quick thinking, honesty
They went the extra mile to help guests in times of need
When a guest choked on her food, a duty manager quickly stepped in and administered the Heimlich manoeuvre.
Miss Cheng Yu-En was attending to guest inquiries at Orchard Hotel when a colleague informed her of the incident.
When she got to the scene, she found that the guest's family members had not realised what happened. Some were at the buffet section while two others were engrossed in conversation.
Miss Cheng, 30, quickly applied a few abdominal thrusts on the guest, believed to be in her 70s, for a few seconds until a piece of dislodged food popped out of her mouth.
Yesterday at Furama RiverFront, Miss Cheng was awarded the Bravery Award during the Singapore Hotel Association's (SHA) annual Hotel Security Awards Presentation Ceremony, which recognises hotels and its employees for making safety and security a top priority.
She told The New Paper: "If it were my mother, I would want someone to do the same."
Miss Cheng, a Taiwanese, who has been working in the hotel for over five years, also went to buy medicated ointment for the guest.
"Her family members thanked me for what I did but anyone would have done the same," she said.
Ms Margaret Heng, executive director of SHA, said in a welcome address: "Employees must be vigilant and be equipped with a 'see something, say something' mindset to prevent any potential crimes and attacks from happening."
The event was also graced by guest of honour, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs Sun Xueling.
Mr Iswady Motar Ali, 42, an assistant security manager at Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa, received the Honesty Award for returning a bag of gold jewellery worth about $4,000 to his guests, a newly wed couple.
FOUND
It was found under a banquet table at the wedding venue, among piles of rubbish and plastic bags, he said.
He was told that the jewellery - a necklace and a few bangles - carried sentimental value as it was passed down from the guest's grandmother and aunt.
He said: "Thankfully, I could return it in time during the wedding lunch after the solemnisation ceremony."
Receiving the Vigilance Award was Ms Tan Keng Sin, who pulled a five-year-old ashore from the waters of Siloso Beach after the girl was reported missing at Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort and Spa.
Ms Tan, 47, a manager at Cool Zone, a club for children aged five to 12, said the father of the child reported that the girl went missing after he briefly left the play area.
She said: "I am not a good swimmer but once I was in the water, which reached waist-deep, all I thought of was to pull her back to safety."
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