Dressed in ceremonial attire, 58-year-old U. Silvakumar was with three other Hindu devotees on their way to a fire-walking ceremony on Sunday (Oct 23), when they noticed something amiss. Near a petrol station along Serangoon Road, they saw a crowd gathered around an elderly Chinese man who had collapsed — some people were fanning the man with scarves to help improve ventilation.
Silvakumar, an army military expert, quickly jumped in to help. After checking that the unconscious man had no pulse or signs of breathing, Silvakumar performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on him. That was one of the images that went viral, thanks to passerby Kumar V, who took the photos, and his brother-in-law, who uploaded them on Facebook.
Luckily, the man showed signs of response before he was carried into the ambulance dispatched by the Singapore Civil Defence Force. His heartbeat went back to normal, according to the ambulance’s monitor.
Relieved, Silvakumar resumed his day and completed his fire-walking ceremony in the evening.
‘It’s my nature to help,’ Silvakumar told The Straits Times. ‘It takes guts because everyone is watching but I was not really pressured. I was just praying for him to come through. If I can save him, I am happy, but if I cannot then it is fate, but it won’t stop me from trying again.’
Update: Silvakumar has been conferred the SCDF Public Spiritedness Award for his kind deed.
