26-Year-Old Woman From Perak Dies While Having A Massage In Singapore
She was an only child and lived with her parents and younger god-brother.
By Sadho Ram — 18 Feb 2016, 12:38 PM
Serene Lim Xinhui, a 26-year-old from Perak who lived in Singapore, died after she suffered a seizure during a tuina (Chinese therapeutic massage) session. The incident happened on Sunday, 14 February.
She had told her mother in the afternoon that she was going for a facial treatment in Orchard Road. She is believed to have later gone shopping and then to the Qing Kang Integrated Chinese Medicine Clinic at Midpoint Orchard shopping mall for a tuina session at 7.30pm. Midway through her session, her body started shaking violently and she slipped into a coma.
thestar.com.myA clinic employee called the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), which gave guidance over the phone to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Ms Lim. The SCDF also sent an ambulance which took her to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at about 8.50pm.
Investigations into her death are ongoing, and the police have yet to classify the case, pending results of a coroner's inquiry, The Star Online reported. A former scholarship holder of enterprise development agency Spring Singapore, Serene had just resigned from Spring last week and was due to start her new job at a bank on Monday, the day after her death.
Serene had signed up for a tuina session through Groupon, Ms Ji Furong, director of the clinic, told The Straits Times
While the clinic is new, she and her husband also run another traditional Chinese medicine clinic in Jalan Bukit Merah, which opened about five years ago.
Tuina is non-invasive and is used on children, too. It has also been used alongside acupuncture and herbal treatments to treat epileptic patients.
Ms Ji said she does not know of any case in the TCM sector in which a customer suffered seizures in the middle of tuina sessions.
The only child in her family, she lived with her parents and her younger god-brother. Her mother, who works as a part-time cleaner, said that Serene was a dutiful daughter, The Star Online reported.
"Besides paying the monthly rent of S$1,000 (RM2,974), she would still give us about S$200 (RM594) to S$300 (RM892) for allowance, 10% of her performance bonus and take us on a holiday every year," she said.
Friends attending the wake said that she was "bubbly, positive and likeable".
According to Lim's social media profiles, she was a bright student, graduating with a double first class honours degree in accountancy and business from Nanyang Technological University in 2012.
