Architect credits CPR, AED for saving his life

(From left) Badrul, Halmi, Oon and Yeo at SJAM office in Klang. In Halmi’s hand is the AED that was used to resuscitate Oon. — KK SHAM/The Star

Architect Jack Oon is grateful that people sprang into action when he collapsed on a futsal pitch late last year as he now lives to tell the tale.

The 60-year-old was half an hour into a match with his friends in Kota Damansara, Selangor on Nov 4 when he had cardiac arrest.

A friend known as Zaf rushed to help Oon, who was not breathing and had no pulse.

Zaf performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on Oon while another team member ran to a St John Ambulance Malaysia (SJAM) van parked nearby.

“Oon survived because his rescuer started CPR at once.

“If they had waited for the medics, Oon would have died,” said SJAM Foundation Selangor Coastal Area chief operating officer Datuk Yeo Kim Thong.

SJAM members Mohamad Badrul Hisyam Mahtar, 32, and Mohamad Halmi Ahmad, 30, hurried to Oon’s aid.

Badrul checked Oon’s vitals and found that his blood oxygen level was below 70% while his blood pressure was unreadable.

“As we headed to Hospital Sungai Buloh, CPR was administered and we gave him three shocks from an automated external defibrillator (AED).

“It was with the third shock, about two minutes from the hospital, that we recorded a pulse,” said Halmi.

Oon was stabilised at the hospital and later transferred to the National Heart Institute (IJN), where he had two stents placed in his heart’s coronary arteries while ballooning was done for another artery.

Oon told StarMetro he felt fine and was sharing his story in the hope of helping others.

“I had no symptoms of cardiac arrest before this and no family history of heart disease,” said the father of three.

Yeo said the AED and CPR played a big part in resuscitating Oon, and minutes counted when reviving someone in sudden cardiac arrest.

He said it was important to keep in mind the crucial “chain of survival” link.

“It starts with a 999 call. Carry out CPR, the second link, before defibrillation with an AED,” said Yeo.

Oon is now a firm believer in the importance of having AEDs installed in public areas.

“I am grateful that people are learning CPR to save lives. And having an AED made such a vital difference for me.

“I hope AEDs will be placed in public areas to improve one’s rate of survival should an incident like mine occur in those spaces,” he said.

Former health minister Khairy Jamaludin had announced in 2021 that it would be mandatory for all public facilities and transport services to have AEDs available by 2025.

He had said that the first phase would be for all public and private facilities to provide the device on a voluntary basis.

Under a joint initiative with non-governmental organisations, 100 AEDs would be placed around the country from June 1, 2022, and that number would be “increased from time to time”.