Woman helps cardiac arrest victim a day after learning first aid
She spent two days learning first-aid skills from the Singapore Red Cross, and 24 hours later, Ms Priya Choudhary helped save an elderly man who had fainted at Queenstown Stadium.
Recalling the incident to The New Paper last Wednesday, Ms Priya said: "A harmless situation can go dramatically wrong and the least you can do is to be prepared."
She hoped more people would learn first aid to help others in emergencies.
World First Aid Day was on Sept 14.
She had spent Aug 1 and 2 learning from the SRC.
A day later, while out jogging at the stadium at 8am, the account manager heard a man's cry for help.
She saw an elderly man sitting on a bench looking as if he was about to faint and a man had shouted for help.
She said: "I got him to help by putting the elderly man on the ground in case he fell. He looked pale and dazed."
The elderly man then lost consciousness and Ms Priya quickly dialled for an ambulance and left her mobile phone on speaker mode.
CPR
Ms Priya applied cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him while she waited for help to arrive.
She said: "The situation was tense and I lost track of time. I got even more flustered when the operators from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) asked for my location. All I knew then was to help the man."
Ms Priya gave the elderly man about 50 chest compressions.
About two minutes later, two of the stadium's swimming pool lifeguards appeared with an automated external defibrillator to revive him.
The SCDF told TNP that the elderly man had a cardiac arrest. He regained consciousness and was rushed to the National University Hospital by ambulance.
Ms Priya said the first few minutes are crucial when someone is unconscious.
"You can't wait if it is a life-and-death situation. I was in the right place at the right time. It is almost eerie how coincidental it was."
Mr Syafawi Ho, 60, an SRC first-aid instructor, agreed.
He said: "No one knows when an accident or a cardiac arrest may happen. It is important to equip ourselves with life-saving skills so we can use it during emergencies."
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