Heart attacks are always sudden and they can happen any time and anywhere.
On 13 September, a 42-year-old Malaysian was playing badminton at a court in Air Itam, Penang when he suffered a heart attack.
People at the court asked for help and an off-duty Civil Defence Officer, Pbt. Lim Meng Jin who was nearby received the distress message, reported Oriental Daily.
When he got to know that the man had a heart attack, he raced to the nearest AED (automated external defibrillator) at the Rifle Range Flats bus stop and brought it to the badminton court as he knew that he had very little time to save the man.
Upon arriving at the court, he was relieved to see that someone else had already performed CPR. According to Friends Of MCDF on Facebook, he set up the AED pads on the man’s torso and followed the instructions given by the machine.
Due to the quick actions of the Civil Defence Officer and another unnamed hero, the man was able to survive that and was sent to the Coronary Care Unit.
The man was certainly lucky as there was an AED and someone who knew CPR nearby.
According to Buletin Mutiara, the badminton player is the 8th cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) survivor since the Penang Heart Safe Programme was launched in 2015. Through this program, AEDs were installed at different spots on the island.
This incident serves as a reminder that knowing basic first aid and CPR can help to save lives. So if you have free time, do register yourself for a first aid course, you might not know when or where the skill might be needed.
