Hotel guest borrowed scissors from her, then started to slash himself

SINGAPORE - An innocuous request by a guest at The Clan Hotel Singapore to borrow a pair of scissors from the concierge turned into an alarming situation when the man in his 20s started slashing his wrist with it.

Ms Marie Joyce Agustin, who was at the concierge counter, quickly sprang into action and snatched the scissors from him to stop him from harming himself. The guest service executive managed to defuse the situation.

On Monday, the 34-year-old received a Special Mention Award at the annual Hotel Security Awards ceremony held at the Furama RiverFront hotel.

The awards recognise acts of bravery, honesty and vigilance, and are given out jointly by the Singapore Hotel Association, the police and the National Crime Prevention Council.

Recounting the incident, which happened in October last year, Ms Joyce said she applied pressure on the man’s wrist to stem the blood loss after taking the pair of scissors away from him. The man suffered only superficial scratches on his wrist.

She then took him to a quiet area in the hotel, where she listened to him vent his frustrations while waiting for the authorities to arrive.

“I tried to put him at ease. I listened to him, empathised with him, and shared that while growing up, I also had a lot of insecurities about how I looked,” she said. The man had told her that he wanted to harm himself as he was insecure about his looks.

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Apart from Ms Joyce, 17 other hotel employees were also recognised at the ceremony.

Two of them, Mr Gary Sim, 56, and Mr Muhammad Zulhimi Suhardi, 29, were lifeguards on duty at Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa on the morning of Aug 9 last year.

They were alerted to a woman and a man struggling in the open sea near the resort after their kayak capsized.

They hurried to the scene, placed the drowning man on a rescue board and took him back to shore. The man had dislocated his left shoulder while attempting to turn the kayak back up.

The woman managed to row back to shore in the kayak on her own.

Once ashore, the lifeguards put the man’s arm in a sling and applied ice packs on his shoulder while they waited for paramedics to arrive.

Even though the rescued pair were not guests at the resort, Mr Sim said it was instinctive to rush to the scene.

“We take a proactive approach to lifeguarding,” he added. 

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