On Tuesday evening, March 21st, at around 6:30 pm, an uncle choked while dining in a coffee shop of block 501 in Jurong West. He then fainted and fell to the ground, hitting his head and suffering from a cut that caused bleeding. Staff from a nearby clinic rushed to the scene upon hearing the commotion and helped to save the man’s life.
Mr. Lim, a 37-year-old warehouse employee who lives nearby happened to be passing by at the time of the incident. He said in an interview that he heard a commotion coming from the coffee shop and went to see what had happened. He saw an uncle in his fifties lying on the ground, unconscious, with a crowd of onlookers gathered around him, including several medical professionals who had rushed to the scene to provide assistance.
Mr. Lim noticed that the back of the uncle’s head was bleeding, which led him to believe that he had hit his head when he fell. “I was really worried about the uncle’s safety at the time and I hope he’s okay,” he said.
The unnamed noodle stall worker at the coffee shop said in an interview that the uncle had bought a bowl of noodles from her around 6 pm. Half an hour later, she heard a commotion outside the coffee shop and went to see what had happened. She saw the uncle lying on the ground with several people around him.
One man called the emergency hotline while using the speakerphone on his mobile phone. A woman knelt beside the uncle and followed the instructions given by the emergency services via her phone. “The ambulance arrived around 7 pm and took him to the hospital,” she said.
It is reported that prior to the incident, some members of the public had sought help from a nearby clinic, but the doctor was not available. The woman who helped the uncle turn out to be a staff member of the clinic.
