The chain of survival for Stayin' Alive
After a man collapses from cardiac arrest on a weekend outing, Dr Michael Tse witnesses how the quick thinking of fellow cyclists helped save his life
Two weekends ago at Sunny Bay on Lantau Island, a place where many cyclists train and exercise, some fast-acting good Samaritans assisted a fellow cyclist at the side of the road who appeared to have suffered cardiac arrest.
While the man, Philip, was not known to them, the actions of those few cyclists that day had an unquestionable impact on the lives of this man, his family and friends.
[It is] more common ... for people to walk away, assuming that someone else can help
The fact that Philip is alive and well - save for some short-term memory loss - is a miracle. I know this because I was personally involved in the incident. I had also been cycling in Sunny Bay and saw the state Philip was in when the ambulance arrived. He didn't look like he would make it.
Sudden cardiac arrest kills more than 10,000 people in Hong Kong each year. As we go through our daily lives, rarely do we think about this small "workhorse" of a muscle in our chest that is tasked with pumping blood throughout our bodies ceaselessly from the time we are a few weeks old in the womb until the day we die.
Our hearts beat about 100,000 times per day - about 2.5 to three billion times over an average lifespan.
When cardiac arrest occurs, blood is not circulated to the brain, resulting in a person falling unconscious in a matter of seconds. If the condition is left untreated, brain damage may occur within a mere four to five minutes due to lack of oxygen.