SINGAPORE - It has been months since he helped to resuscitate a man who had lost consciousness at Sembawang Bus Interchange, but Mr Muhamad Nasran Jafar still remembers vividly the scene on the morning after New Year’s Day.
It was peak period on Jan 2 and the Tower Transit Singapore bus driver was about to start work when he noticed a commotion at the public toilet at the interchange.
Mr Nasran saw an elderly, heavyset man slumped against one of the cubicle doors, his face blue and pale, and the 43-year-old knew instantly he could not stand idly by.
After moving the unconscious man to the toilet floor with the help of a colleague, Mr Nasran performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for 10 minutes as they waited for paramedics to arrive.
The elderly man, who was in his 70s, eventually regained his pulse, but died a day later.
“There was only one thing in my mind at the time,” Mr Nasran, a former private ambulance driver, told The Straits Times when asked about the incident. “This man deserved a second chance.”
For stepping forward to render help, Mr Nasran and interchange supervisor Naveen Ruthven were on Aug 17 given the Community First Responder Award by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
Mr Glenn Lim, Tower Transit Singapore’s director of communications and customer experience, said the bus operator is proud of its two employees.
He added: “We felt that their actions deserved the appropriate recognition, not just in Tower Transit, but also in the community.”
Mr Naveen was the first to notice that something was wrong when he went to the toilet at about 7am and found that the man was unresponsive.
“I freaked out a bit, and then I checked for breathing and pulse,” Mr Naveen, 38, said, adding that he wanted to move the man out of the cubicle, but was worried he would fall if he tried to do it on his own.
It was then that he saw Mr Nasran and asked him for help. After the bus driver started CPR, Mr Naveen called SCDF, alerted Tower Transit Singapore’s bus operations control centre, and helped control the crowd of onlookers that had formed.
Mr Naveen said the incident brought back memories of how he was not able to be at his father’s funeral in Malaysia due to Covid-19 travel restrictions at the time.
“I wanted to know whether the uncle was okay,” he told ST. “We only found out he died when we got the (SCDF) award.”
For Mr Nasran, performing CPR for 10 minutes that day was a feat that exacted its toll. He took a breather before resuming his driving duties later in the day. “My hands and arms were numb. My knees too. It took about half an hour before I recovered,” he said.
While Mr Nasran and Mr Naveen have both had first-aid training, neither had dealt with a cardiac arrest case before.
“It is good to know some basic knowledge – what are the important things to look out for,” Mr Naveen said.
Overcome with emotion, Mr Nasran said he was surprised to be commended by SCDF, as he had not expected anything in return. He said: “I told my wife, and she said she is proud of me. It means a lot.”
