STRANGE DEATH 1: HE DIES DANCING
HE WAS DOING WHAT HE LOVED MOST WHEN...
By Chong Shin Yen
April 04, 2008
HE so loved dancing that he would spend most of his free time
perfecting his moves.
And on Tuesday, Mr Elvin Teo Wei Ming, 23, died doing what he
loved most.
He was on a dance machine at an arcade when he suddenly
collapsed.
Mr Teo, a sub-contractor, was rushed to hospital but died an hour
later without regaining consciousness.
He had died of cardio-respiratory failure, according to the death
certificate.
Mr Teo had gone to the Zone-X arcade at Orchard Atrium in Dhoby
Ghaut MRT Station with his girlfriend, around 8pm.
His father, Mr Teo Teck Heng, 45, told The New Paper: 'His
girlfriend said he had been dancing for half an hour. Then, he
suddenly bent forward and fell to the ground.
'She called out to him but he didn't respond.'
His girlfriend shouted for help but it was too noisy in the arcade
for anyone to hear her.
She then asked the arcade's staff to help her call for an
ambulance.
Mr Teo, who was at work when he received the call from his wife,
said he rushed to the Singapore General Hospital but was too late
to speak to his son for one last time.
'The nurse said my son's heart had stopped beating by the time
he reached the hospital,' said Mr Teo.
'They tried to resuscitate him but failed.'
He was pronounced dead at 10.20pm.
One of the arcade's workers told Shin Min Daily News that the
younger Mr Teo was a familiar face there.
'He would come here at least three times every week,' said the
worker, who declined to be named.
'Every time, he would spend an hour on the dance machine.'
Such machines require the player to make dance movements with their
arms and legs while fast music is played.
CREATED OWN STEPS
The arcade employee added that Mr Teo was with a group of friends
on Tuesday night, and they were taking turns to dance on the
machine.
Mr Teo said that his son enjoyed dancing since he was 5 years
old.
'Back then, we bought him a dancing mat which had circles in
different colours,' said Mr Teo.
'He liked it so much and would follow the steps on the television
screen.
'But soon, he started creating his own dance steps. Since then,
dancing had been his passion.'
Mr Teo added that when his son was older, he bought him a hand-held
game.
'Most of the games he played were dance-related ones,' he
said.
'He would spend one or two hours a day playing them.'
When he became a teenager, he began frequenting arcades for their
dance machines.
'I once asked him why he did not think of taking up dancing as a
career. But he told me that he was too shy to dance on a stage in
front of everyone. He was the kind who danced only for his own
enjoyment.'
Mr Teo said his son was a heavy smoker and kept late nights. He
suffered from thalassemia, a type of blood disorder, but did not
have other medical problems.
The eldest of three children, he had been working in his father's
sub-contracting business after completing his national
service.
Mr Teo lost a daughter 18 years ago. The girl was only 4 years old
when she died from a heart ailment.
'He was very filial. Nowadays, not many youngsters would help their
parents in their business,' said Mr Teo.
'He did it because he didn't want me to work too hard.'
Mr Teo added that his son usually worked till 8pm before going out
with his friends.
'He would go to bed only around 2am. I noticed he had slimmed down
recently and he looked like he didn't get enough sleep.'
Mr Teo said his son had worked over the weekend, so he told the
young man to take Monday and Tuesday off to rest.
The last time the family saw him was at noon on Tuesday.
He had told them he was going to the bank before meeting his
girlfriend.
Mr Teo said: 'If he had gone to work with me that day, this might
not have happened.
'His death was so sudden. But we take comfort in the fact that he
died doing what he loved the most.'
