Hello if you're here from June's Months in Moments. And hello, even if you're not from there.
Pris, Marc and I had lunch that Friday afternoon, after which we headed to Aman Suria to buy cupcakes for Caryn's birthday. We then left to my house because Pris' car was there and she wanted to go home and get ready for CRAVE that night, as Marc and I needed to do so, too.
The traffic light next to SJK (T) Effingham was red so I slowed down behind a truck. We noticed that it was parked there with its hazard lights on. Thought nothing much about it, maybe there was a problem with his truck.
Then, a piece of tissue was thrown out from the driver's window, which caused the three of us to make comments all at the same time about how irresponsible people are nowadays with their littering.
Seeing as the light was still red and that there was enough space for me to stop in front of the truck, I drove in front of it so that I can just go straight ahead when the light turns green.
As we passed the right of the truck, prepared to shoot our disgraceful looks at the person who threw the tissue paper out (as you would), we saw a man laying upright in the driver's seat, unconscious. Next to him was a woman carrying a baby, along with a young girl on her left.
Immediately, we stopped the car in front of the truck and turned on the hazard lights. Marc went down first to check things out.
The man laid there, unconscious but heavily breathing. The wife placed a lighter in his mouth, with saliva overflowing from the sides, possibly in fear of him having a seizure or to avoid the saliva from choking him.
She told us that he was diabetic and that this was not the first time he's experienced hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). He was doing his rounds of delivery when he lost consciousness while driving, but thankfully she managed to stop the truck at the side of the road.
If I don't remember wrongly, they've been there for at least an hour when we found them.
While we were talking to her, a policeman appeared. A motorcyclist followed behind him, and told us that he saw them and headed to the nearby police station to get help.
The policeman talked to her for awhile and then he just left.
All of us were confused. Was he not going to do something?
Marc called 999.
They told us that they had no available ambulances at that time and so we had to wait.
"Watch his breathing," they said.
"Watch his breathing," they said.
We told the wife and said that will wait with them.
Pris and I played with the little girl with whatever we managed to find at the side of the road - small pebbles, sand, flowers. She was also very amused with Pris' hair tie for some reason.
So many cars passed by.
Some glared, wondering why we were stopped at the side of the road; some honked, as if these three young adults were disrupting their daily commute on purpose; some slowed down, just to see what was going on and drove off right after.
For the two hours we were there, only two cars stopped next to us; one asked if the man was okay and the other asked if we needed more help.
After what seemed like forever, the ambulance finally arrived at about 5pm. His employer, whom the wife called earlier, also appeared at the same time.
"How did you guys notice?" one of the paramedic asked in Bahasa Malaysia while the other paramedics did their thing with the drips and all.
We told him the story and he was impressed by how observant we were.
Soon after, the man regained his consciousness.
The paramedics thanked us and told us that we could go. His family and employers were also grateful for the help and thanked us again.
"Bye bye cheche," the little girl said.
The three of us got back into the car and headed back to my place. All of us looked at each other for awhile, then proceeded to get ready for CRAVE that night.
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I had so many questions going through my mind when we were there by the roadside.
Why didn't anyone else stop and help before us? Did the policeman even do anything? How long was the ambulance going to take? How is it possible that there were not enough ambulances to respond to emergency calls? What if we tried to bring him to the hospital ourselves? What if he wasn't going to make it? What will happen to the wife and children?
I brushed all of this off.
What was most important to us at that point of time was to be there with the wife and the children.
I'm not telling this story to paint us as heroes or to say that he now owes us everything because we helped him, I'm just grateful that we were at the right place, at the right time and that things turned out well.
And this is in spite of the incompetency of authorities, the lack of resources of hospitals and the bystander effect which left us disappointed but not surprised at how no one else, besides the motorcyclist, stopped before us to help.
So, here's a reminder to open your eyes where you are to see the needs that you can meet. It really doesn't take much.
Fun fact: When we asked Marc to call 999 the first time round, his immediate response was, "Really ah?" because we've been so conditioned to never ever dial that number unless it was necessary. Also, the first thing the 999 operator said when she picked up the phone was, "Hello Mr. Marcus," which kinda freaked us out.
And this was the day we called 999.
__
I had so many questions going through my mind when we were there by the roadside.
Why didn't anyone else stop and help before us? Did the policeman even do anything? How long was the ambulance going to take? How is it possible that there were not enough ambulances to respond to emergency calls? What if we tried to bring him to the hospital ourselves? What if he wasn't going to make it? What will happen to the wife and children?
I brushed all of this off.
What was most important to us at that point of time was to be there with the wife and the children.
I'm not telling this story to paint us as heroes or to say that he now owes us everything because we helped him, I'm just grateful that we were at the right place, at the right time and that things turned out well.
And this is in spite of the incompetency of authorities, the lack of resources of hospitals and the bystander effect which left us disappointed but not surprised at how no one else, besides the motorcyclist, stopped before us to help.
So, here's a reminder to open your eyes where you are to see the needs that you can meet. It really doesn't take much.
Fun fact: When we asked Marc to call 999 the first time round, his immediate response was, "Really ah?" because we've been so conditioned to never ever dial that number unless it was necessary. Also, the first thing the 999 operator said when she picked up the phone was, "Hello Mr. Marcus," which kinda freaked us out.
And this was the day we called 999.
