Man has responded to more than 20 emergencies on MyResponder app, Latest Singapore News - The New Paper
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Man has responded to more than 20 emergencies on MyResponder app

This article is more than 12 months old

When Mr Rex Ang Jia Jie, 20, responded to the MyResponder app on two occasions, he had expected to find elderly people who had suffered cardiac arrest.

Instead, Mr Ang, a first-year nursing student at Parkway College of Nursing and Allied Health, was shocked to find kids aged three to six years old who had taken ill.

Not only has he responded to more than 20 suspected cases of cardiac arrest, he also carries a small first-aid kit with him wherever he goes.

For his public-spirited acts, he has been awarded five community first responder awards.

Mr Ang is trained in paediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and has even prepared a bigger first-aid kit at home in case there is an emergency around the neighbourhood.

When he was 17, he completed a first-aid training course with the Singapore Red Cross Society where he learnt CPR, standard first-aid and how to use an automated external defibrillator.

He told The New Paper: "I've always had a passion to help people, but I didn't know where to start. "I realised I was a very practical person when it came to helping others, so I thought that learning such skills would definitely come in handy."

MYRESPONDER APP

Once he was first-aid trained, Mr Ang downloaded the MyResponder app.

The app, the result of a collaboration between the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), was launched in 2015.

SCDF told The New Paper the app was created because they found many of the emergency cases could be quickly attended to by members of the public through simple medical intervention within the critical first few minutes.

The app allows SCDF to quickly connect to the public and increase survival rates.

So far, it has more than 40,000 registered respondents, with close to 21,000 responses to cases.

When he arrives at the scene, Mr Ang will either perform CPR or assist paramedics in moving the patient to the ambulance.

He said alerts from the app can come any time, and he will quickly check the location, grab his kit and run out of his home.

The first time his parents watched him run out of their flat at 11pm, they were confused.

They are now used to the alert tone and make sure to open the door for him as soon as they hear it.

Mr El-Malique Ghazali, 19, a software engineer at GovTech, told TNP: "It is very encouraging for me, as one of the developers on the project, to see people such as Mr Ang using MyResponder to help the community."

Mr Ang said: "Whether I manage to resuscitate the casualty or not, I really feel like I've done my best. I'm constantly driven by my passion to help and when I respond to a case, I am reminded as to why I do it."

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