More migrant workers learning CPR via SCDF and MOM

Seven months after learning how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), Mr Islam Mohammad Shariful used his new skills to save a fellow migrant worker’s life.

Mr Shariful, a facility maintenance technician and cleaner at Westlite Tuas Avenue 2, had been alerted on Oct 16, 2023, that Mr Chandanaada Ganga Raju, 35, had suffered a suspected cardiac arrest in his room.

He was found unconscious and frothing from the mouth. He regained consciousness after Mr Shariful, 29, applied CPR on him.

Paramedics said Mr Raju did not need to go to the hospital.

It was the first time Mr Shariful had used CPR after learning it in March 2023 at a Community Emergency Preparedness Programme conducted by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

The Bangladeshi worker has been working at the Westlite dormitory for more than three years.

Speaking at his workplace on Oct 29, Mr Shariful said: “I was focused because I know how to do CPR. I just did my part.”

More migrant workers have been trained to perform CPR and use automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in recent years, skills that could help not only workers at worksites, but also members of the public during emergencies. Some, like Mr Shariful, join SCDF’s programmes.

Others learn the skills through the Ministry of Manpower’s Assurance, Care and Engagement (ACE) group’s Project First Responder initiative.

Under the project, ACE works with the Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF) and the Singapore Red Cross (SRC) to train migrant workers, dormitory operators and front-line officers in lifesaving skills.

ACE chief medical officer Lee Heow Yong said: “The aim is to build resuscitation readiness at areas where migrant workers predominantly work and live.” He added that such skill sets would foster a safer living environment.

Working with ACE, SHF conducts about two training sessions per month, while SRC provides four such sessions annually.

They are done pro bono and usually held in dormitories, migrant worker recreation centres or workplaces.

More than 5,000 migrant workers and dormitory operators have been trained since the project started in October 2021.

Dr Lee said this is more than the project’s target of 2,000 individuals within two years.

Mr Shariful, who received an award from his company for his heroic efforts, said he was grateful he learnt CPR.

After recovering, Mr Raju told him he had collapsed after receiving bad news about his girlfriend’s health over a call.

Mr Shariful said Mr Raju thanked him for saving his life and returned to India to marry his girlfriend.

Not all cases have a happy ending. On June 24, Mr Saminathan Raghunath, 43, a safety coordinator at engineering firm Onyo Engineering, collapsed at the ASPRI-Westlite Papan Dormitory near Jurong East while watching a movie on his mobile phone.

The Indian national, who was married and had children aged 12 and 17, had suffered a cardiac arrest and died. His friends of over a decade, Mr Mohan Satheesh Kumar, 38, Mr Karunanithi Prabhakaran, 32, and Mr Ganapathi Kaliyamoorthy, 43, supervisors at the firm, did not know CPR.

Mr Mohan and Mr Kaliyamoorthy stayed in the same dormitory room. They could only call for help from security personnel, and watched helplessly as their friend died.

Mr Prabhakaran was on home leave in India at the time. He visited Mr Raghunath’s family. He said: “If we knew CPR, maybe we could have helped him... we only feel it when this happened to our friend.”

The three men learnt how to perform CPR and use an AED in July through Project First Responder, with about 60 workers at the dormitory.

Onyo Engineering managing director Tan Tian Sim said that before the incident, there were only five workers in the firm who knew CPR. These workers were designated first-aiders for construction projects. Mr Raghunath was one of them.

Now, of the firm’s 146 workers, 50 are trained in CPR and AED skills.

The company’s chairman, Mr William Tan, said: “It’s beneficial to the company that they know the basics (of lifesaving skills) when these kinds of things happen.”

Mr Teo Kim Poh, dormitory manager of Toh Guan Dormitory under Capital Development, said more than 100 workers who stay in the dormitory have been trained under Project First Responder. The dormitory plans to increase the frequency of training as response has been overwhelming, he added.

“(For) cardiac arrests, every second counts. We don’t want to take chances,” he said.