10 honored for saving lives using first-aid skills

The Red Cross Society of China honored 10 individuals or groups on Wednesday for providing first aid in emergency circumstances, as part of its efforts to raise awareness and education of first aid assistance across the society.

The honorees come from diverse backgrounds and include a delivery courier, an amusement park worker, college students and subway employees.

All of them offered first aid, such as carrying out cardiopulmonary resuscitation or using an automated external defibrillator to save patients experiencing sudden cardiac arrest, and rescuing drowning people.

It was the second edition of a campaign known as The Top 10 Excellent First-Aiders held by China's Red Cross since 2021.

"By sharing the experiences of these first-aiders, we aim to encourage more people to learn first-aid knowledge and skills," said Sun Shuopeng, vice-president of China's Red Cross, during a news conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Last year, Red Cross organizations in China trained 3.16 million certified first-aid workers, rolled out education or training activities for more than 52 million people and provided over 43,000 AED equipment at schools, subway stations, tourist spots, stadiums and other public facilities, he said.

According to a report released by the National Health Commission and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention last month, the incidence rate of cardiac arrest in China has increased during the past decade to 97.1 per 100,000 people at present.

Meanwhile, public use of CPR has risen significantly during the same period, but the use of AEDs remains low, the report said.

Yan Mukun and three others were honored for saving the life of his soccer teammate who had a heart attack during a leisure match in Changsha, Hunan province.

"The incident made us realize that delivering consistent CPR and properly using AEDs can significantly increase the chances of survival," he said.

Yan said that at first, he did not want to retell the story to the media and the public out of respect for his teammate.

"But after some discussion, we decided to share the details of our experiences as a means to improve awareness of first aid among the public," he said.

WANG XIAOYU in Hangzhou