Hotel collapse hero loses fight with cancer

SINGAPORE - He was one of the heroes of the Hotel New World disaster, who not only coordinated the ground and air medical evacuation rescue efforts after the building's collapse, but crawled through a tunnel to pull survivors out from under the rubble.

Brigadier-General Dr Lim Meng Kin, who was then the chief medical officer of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), died on Thursday - two days shy of his 63rd birthday - after a battle with colon cancer.

He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Mrs Lim Sook Cheng, and two sons, Kenneth, 34, and Derek, 26.

Yesterday, one of the people he saved turned up at his wake after seeing his obituary in a newspaper. Mr Boey Mun Wai was a 32-year-old employee of the Industrial and Commercial Bank at Hotel New World when it collapsed in March 1986. The disaster claimed 33 lives.

For nearly three days, Mr Boey was pinned under the body of a Cisco guard, while his legs were trapped under the bank vault door.

Recounting the incident to Dr Lim's sister, Mr Boey, now 59, said he was getting very thirsty when he heard someone tunnelling through and saw Dr Lim appear through a small hole. Dr Lim gave him water and kept calling out "What's your name?" to keep him conscious before it was possible to pull him out of the rubble.

For his role in the Hotel New World rescue, Dr Lim was conferred the Public Service Star in 1986.

The third of four children, he graduated from the University of Singapore as a medical doctor but chose to join the army in 1975 as he wanted to serve his country.

He rose through the ranks to become chief of the SAF Medical Corps in 1986. Dr Lim later retired from the SAF and, at the time of his death, was an associate professor at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore.

Dr Lim was also involved in other high-profile operations, such as the 1991 storming of hijacked Singapore Airlines flight SQ117 by the army. All civilians were safe and accounted for.

Dr Lim's family members remember him as a devout Christian who let his faith govern all his actions. He was also a loving father who tended to downplay his problems so as not to worry them.

When Hotel New World collapsed, his younger son was only two days old. Dr Lim did not tell his wife about his role in the relief efforts, much less the fact that he was burrowing through the rubble to rescue survivors.

"I only found out when it came out in the papers," recalled Mrs Lim, an editorial director.

More than 1,000 people, made up of ex-colleagues, former schoolmates, church friends, students and many others with whom he had crossed paths, turned up at his three-day wake.

After the relapse of his cancer last year, Dr Lim - who was first diagnosed in 2010 but was thought to have recovered from it - had a conversation with his younger son about how he used to set 10-year goals for himself.

"He said that by the time he reached 50, he was very blessed and contented because he had achieved what he set out to do," said the younger Mr Lim, a business developer.

"Everything else for him was a bonus."

mellinjm@sph.com.sg

Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.