Proper emergency training would save lives

A foreign woman conducts external chest compression for Jin Bo at Hujialou underground station in Beijing on June 29. [Photo from web]

Jin Bo, a 34-year-old deputy editor-in-chief of China's leading online forum Tianya, suffered a heart attack at a subway station in the eastern part of Beijing on Wednesday. He died about 50 minutes after collapsing at Hujialou station despite three women administering artificial respiration for some time immediately after his collapse. Ifeng.com commented on Saturday:

If cardiopulmonary resuscitation, commonly known as CPR, is correctly performed on someone who suffers cardiac arrest within four minutes, the victim's chances of survival greatly increase.

However, in many cases, very few people know how to perform CPR and they call for an ambulance instead and wait for medical staff to do it.

Besides, an automated external defibrillator can help administer successful CPR, but this was missing at the subway station where Jin died. They are not available in many public buildings.

It is fair to say that the emergency facilities in China lag behind many developed countries, where AEDs are easily accessible in public areas for emergencies. In China there is too much reliance on ambulance staff for public rescues. There should be more equipment available in public places such as subway stations and people should receive first aid training.

Even though three women tried to help Jin and did everything they could to save his life, the fact that they were unable to do so points to their lack of first aid training, and the lack of training the subway station staff receive.

Hopefully, public places will be equipped with AEDs and subway staff taught how to use them.