SINGAPORE - An off-duty paramedic leapt to the assistance of a male jogger who collapsed along 1 Woodlands Drive 64 on Tuesday morning around 8am.
The male paramedic, who was passing by, attempted to resuscitate the middle-aged jogger, who had no pulse and was not breathing.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force said in a statement on Facebook that they received a call for ambulance assistance at 8:05am, and dispatched the nearest available ambulance.
The SCDF said the off-duty paramedic "administered Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) while asking a member of public to get an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) from a nearby school."
"Two shocks of the AED were administered by him to the patient as part of the cardiac arrest resuscitation procedure before the SCDF ambulance arrived. Upon arriving at the scene, both paramedics observed the patient had a strong pulse and was breathing," the statement added.
The patient was sent to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), arriving at around 8:30am.
Two videos (Warning: The videos contain sensitive content) of the rescue posted on Facebook by user Robin Sim were widely shared. Many netizens praised the actions of the off-duty paramedic, but several criticized the SCDF's apparent lack of urgency in attending to the patient.
In their Facebook statement, the SCDF responded: "We agree with netizens that the arriving ambulance crew could have moved more swiftly to attend to the patient notwithstanding the fact that she was aware the case was being attended to by none other than her own colleague, the off-duty paramedic.
"We understand the patient is currently recovering in hospital and we wish him a speedy recovery."
