Nurse by day, community hero by night: How this Singaporean is saving lives round the clock

SINGAPORE: A year ago, senior staff nurse Kevin Loh was on his way home from work when he received an alert on the Singapore Civil Defence Force’s (SCDF) myResponder app. 

There was a suspected cardiac arrest case nearby, but in the opposite direction of his travel. 

Without hesitation, the 28-year-old exited the expressway and sped towards the location on his motorcycle. 

At the scene, SCDF personnel and other community responders were taking turns to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a middle-aged man who had collapsed while cycling. 

Mr Loh, who works at Sengkang General Hospital, informed the SCDF personnel that he was a nurse and set about helping to intravenously administer fluids to the man.

The teamwork helped save a life and a month later, Mr Loh and the other community responders got to meet the man at a ceremony held by the SCDF.

“It was really a very touching moment seeing him being out of the hospital and living like a normal person,” said Mr Loh.

While rare for Mr Loh to meet people he's saved through his volunteer efforts, him springing into action is not.

Since signing up as a community first responder in 2016, he has attended to nearly 100 cases - averaging a case a month – via the SCDF myResponder app. 

The app notifies registered community first responders of emergencies such as cardiac arrests and small fires, occurring within a 400m vicinity.

A quick glance at Mr Loh’s activity history in the SCDF app showed that he has answered both fire and medical emergencies, with several taking place in the wee hours of the morning.

He even keeps a portable external defibrillator - on loan from SCDF - in the top box of his motorcycle, for when he needs to jump into action.

“I have my phone on all the time for work anyway, so when I hear an alert from the app, I’ll drop everything and go - even if it’s in the middle of the night and (I'm) sleeping,” said Mr Loh. 

“Even though there might already be people responding to the case but if they are doing it alone, it can be very, very tiring and exhausting ... I can be an extra pair of hands to assist. This motivates me to respond whenever I’m able to.”

GIVING BACK

Mr Loh is one of over 181,000 community first responders who've registered with the scheme since it was launched in 2015. 

According to SCDF, these volunteers have responded to more than 12,000 emergencies through the myResponder app to date. These include 8,000 cardiac arrests and 4,000 minor fire incidents.

Eighty lives have been saved through cardiac arrest cases answered via the app.

In sharing his experience, Mr Loh said he hoped for more members of the public to join him as a community first responder. 

"For me, it was a way to give back to the community and save lives," he said. 

In a case he had responded to earlier this year, Mr Loh was surprised and heartened when five other volunteers joined in.

“I was the first one on scene ... so I started doing CPR and then a minute or two later, the other community responders appeared one by one, so we were able to take turns (so that we wouldn’t get too exhausted),” he recalled.

“Seeing a patient manage to be revived - that's the most rewarding thing, especially if you get to see them walking out of the hospital and living a normal life again. It's a very special moment that I don't know how to describe."