KUCHING: Datuk Seri Ang Lai Soon is appealing to the unity government to make cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training compulsory in all institutions of learning nationwide.
The Chair and Commander of St John Ambulance Sarawak (SJAS) said he has been advocating this lifesaving procedure for three decades.
“I hope the federal government under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will now do all the necessary to make this official.
“Together with the use of the automated external defibrillator (AED), CPR will help to save many lives, and when implemented it will not overwhelm the healthcare system, which is still struggling with the surge of Covid-19 cases worldwide,” he said at the closing ceremony of the St John Ambulance Sarawak First Aid and Home Nursing Competition yesterday (June 25).
“In fact, one of the recent federal government’s education ministers responded officially to my appeal, but due to several changes of governments, it was not implemented.
“Now is the time to act. I am confident that this government will end this uncertainty once and for all,” he said.
Ang added that to acquire an AED machine would cost RM5,000, and the cost would be RM10,000 per unit with the use of CPR before the individual is taken to the nearest hospital.
Recalling an incident, he said, a senior SJAS official was in Sematan with his family for a holiday when the latter’s wife suddenly suffered a cardiac arrest.
“None in the family was familiar with CPR, and on arrival at the clinic the casualty was pronounced dead,” he said.
The incident, he said, underscores the critical significance of having the knowledge and ability to administer CPR.
“My grateful thanks to all officers and members of SJAS and across the Commonwealth for their support, the federal government, and Sarawak’s Minister of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah for saying that schools and institutions of learning could incorporate the training in the system with no
inconvenience,” he said.
He said if any non-first aider just attends a CPR training session for two hours, he or she would be able to perform CPR.
“Some young children have been known to save lives by performing CPR. Even trained dogs can perform the task,” he said.
Ang said he has requested his deputy commander to send SJAS first aiders to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) units in hospitals for practical work.
