Chinese family seeks $8K refund after 4-year-old girl gets glass shard in foot when coffee table shattered in Singapore hotel

SINGAPORE: After her four-year-old daughter was injured when a coffee table made of glass in their hotel reportedly shattered, a woman is seeking a full refund of S$8,000 for their stay.

Ms Wang, a 38-year-old accountant from Xiamen, China, together with her family, had been staying at Momentus Hotel Alexandra since July 6. While they were supposed to have checked out earlier, they decided to stay until July 22, and asked to be upgraded to an executive suite, according to reporting from Shin Min Daily News.

On July 11, on the day that the family changed rooms, the mum said that a glass coffee table shattered spontaneously, and her young daughter got a glass shard stuck in her foot.

Earlier that day, a member of the hotel staff moved the table that was in the living room of their suite. Ms Wang moved it back so that her daughter would have more room for playing.

The mother said that while her daughter and younger sister were standing next to the coffee table, it suddenly shattered, hitting the young girl and causing her to burst into tears as her wounds bled.

When the hotel staff was alerted, they administered first aid to the child and cleaned up the glass shards.

However, when her daughter started walking after the incident, she said she felt pain. Ms Wang checked on her daughter and saw that a glass shard had lodged in the sole of her foot.

The mother then requested that someone from the hotel accompany her to bring her daughter to get medical treatment, since she was a tourist who did not know the area where they stayed.

However, she claimed that it took the hotel more than an hour before a staff member took them for medical assistance.

In a post on the Chinese social media site Xiaohongshu, Ms Wang said that the hotel failed to reach out to her family after the incident.

While the total bill for her daughter’s treatment and transport costs was only around S$200, she is asking the hotel for a complete refund of the S$8000 the family paid for their stay, citing her daughter’s emotional trauma as well as safety issues.

Ms Wang has since filed a police report.

On the hotel’s part, Momentus Hotel Alexandra told Shin Min Daily News that an investigation is currently ongoing but declined to provide further comments. /TISG 

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