On the morning of Nov 15, Muhd Arfiz Bin Azmi was on his way home after working the night shift when he came across the scene of an accident at Bedok North Ave 2.
An elderly woman had been knocked down by a vehicle at a junction.
Speaking to The Pride, Arfiz recalled: “It happened very fast. I didn’t witness the whole accident – I just saw that she was lying down.”
“I decided to pull over to assist her however I could,” said the 30-year-old Singapore Civil Defence Force firebiker, who is also cross trained as an Emergency Medical Technician. With the help of an unnamed nurse, he cleared the woman’s airway to help her breathe more easily.
“A few minutes later, she stopped moving,” Arfiz recalled. “The nurse checked her pulse and informed me that it had stopped.”
Arfiz then performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which helped revive the woman.
A few minutes later, an ambulance arrived and the paramedics took over.
Arfiz said: “They transferred her to the ambulance and headed off, and I made my way home.”
The exhausted Good Samaritan didn’t think much more of it.
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Family of deceased woman put up appeal on social media
A month later, on Dec 21, Arfiz was alerted to a Facebook post: The family of the woman he helped had put up an appeal on social media to look for the heroes who had revived their mother, identified only as Madam Goh.
Sadly, he learnt that while his efforts at reviving her were successful, Mrs Goh ultimately died a few hours later from head injuries.
However, his actions had at least given her the chance to say goodbye to her loved ones.
Daughters of deceased victim meet their mother’s Good Samaritan
On Jan 23, motoring platform Motorist.sg brought the two parties together for the first time.
There, Madam Goh’s three daughters were finally able to meet the man who helped their mother. They thanked Arfiz, who was presented with a certificate and cash gift from Motorist.sg.
Speaking to The Pride, Eve Wee-Ang, the eldest daughter of Mrs Goh, recalled the touching last moments with her mother.
As Wee-Ang is based in Shanghai, she was not by her mother’s side when she passed.
“My brother-in-law, who was by her side, passed the phone to my mother. Her heart was still beating,” Wee-Ang said tearfully. “Arfiz had given my mother the breath of life, which prolonged it enough for me to tell her that I’m coming home and that I love her.”
Wee-Ang added: “I didn’t know this at that time, but one minute after I hung up, she was gone.”
“This is a tragedy that all three of us find so hard to accept,” she said. “But Arfiz’s actions helped me find closure.
“I don’t know if Arfiz realised how much his act of kindness mattered to me,” she added.
“Even though I was not by her side, I know she was in safe hands in her last moments,” she said. “We were very comforted that there were so many angels on the scene who helped our mother.”
One should always have the intention to help others
While Arfiz appreciates their heartfelt thanks, he didn’t do it for recognition.
“I just saw her lying on the road and had to help her,” said Arfiz, who found out what happened to Madam Goh only through the post shared by Motorist.sg.
He was glad that he was able to help keep Madam Goh alive long enough for her to say goodbye to her daughters.
“I feel proud that I was able to step up,” he added.
Arfiz understands that many bystanders may not know what to do on the scene of an accident, and may not know how to perform CPR. However, he believes that one can always find ways to help.
“To be a good person, you just need to have the intention to help out whenever you can,” Arfiz said simply. He added that with the right lifesaving skills and good intention, lives can be saved.