Quick-thinking motorist saves unconscious driver

The driver of a car had been unconscious in his vehicle for hours and could have gone unnoticed if not for the man who parked his car next to his.

Mr Francis Loo, 47, the owner of a welding firm, told my paper that he was about to get out of his car at an open-air carpark in Geylang Bahru at about 1pm on Sunday. He was on his way to buy lunch for his father as it was Father's Day.

It was then that he noticed a man in the driver's seat of the car next to his leaning forward at an awkward angle towards the front passenger seat.

Mr Loo said: "He didn't look like he was sleeping. I knocked on his windscreen but there was no response.

It was obvious that something had happened."

Mr Loo then opened the front passenger door of the car - which was unlocked - and immediately felt hot air wafting out. The man in the car was visibly shivering, but unconscious.

When Mr Loo tried to prop him in an upright position, he found that the man's entire polo T-shirt was soaked in perspiration.

He then went over to the driver's side to open the door, and saw that the car key was in the ignition, although the engine had been switched off.

"This poor guy had been lying in the hot car for a while and must have collapsed before he could start the car," said Mr Loo. He posted his account of what happened that day on citizen- journalism website Stomp yesterday.

Mr Loo said that his sister, who was with him, called for an ambulance. He decided against performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which he had been trained in, as the man had a pulse and was still breathing.

"The only thing I could do was to fan him," said Mr Loo, who also turned on the car's air-conditioning.

Meanwhile, his sister sought help from a nearby clinic, along with another passer-by.

A clinic assistant there told Mr Loo's sister that the doctor could not help as he did not want to be held responsible if anything should happen to the man.

Mr Loo said: "The clinic assistant didn't actually go in to ask the doctor for help."

Minutes later, a mobile phone inside the car rang. It was the man's wife, who gave her name as Fauziah, said Mr Loo, who answered the call.

She told him that her husband, Kamal, who is in his 50s, had dropped her off at a market nearby at about 8am.

She added that her husband suffers from Parkinson's disease, and might not have taken his medication that morning.

The man was later taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital in an "unresponsive" state, said the Singapore Civil Defence Force.