Family of doctors help save TungLok restaurant chef during their reunion dinner

SINGAPORE — A relaxing reunion dinner in Orchard Rendezvous Hotel for a family of 12 turned dramatic as three of them raced against time to save a chef who was having a severe asthma attack.

The family had finished their sixth course a little after 10pm on Tuesday (Jan 28) when medical student Alex (not his real name) visited the restroom of the TungLok Signatures restaurant and saw a chef, who looked to be in his 60s, crouched in a corner.

"He was gasping, short of breath, holding his throat and turning pale," the 23-year-old told The Straits Times.

The NUS medical student helped to sit the chef up and administer his inhaler, but his condition was not improving.

Two of the chef's colleagues had already called for an ambulance by then.

"His situation was getting serious," Alex said.

At that point, his father, an orthopaedic surgeon, happened to enter the restroom.

Alex said: "There was no other medical equipment, nothing much to do except to stay and monitor him."

While his father looked after the chef, Alex called his uncle, oncologist Siow Tian Rui, over. Alex said the chef's pulse was getting weaker, and it abruptly stopped at one point.

"When a patient loses his or her pulse, it's indicative for the first aider to begin CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)," he said.

For 15 minutes, his dad and uncle performed CPR on the chef before paramedics from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived.

Alex said he was unsure if the chef was conscious when taken to the hospital, but his heart was beating."It's a dangerous situation to be in. Even after someone is resuscitated, he is not out of the woods yet," he said.

SCDF said it received a call for assistance at 9.55pm on Jan 28, and added that one person was sent to Singapore General Hospital.

A spokeswoman for TungLok Group confirmed that one of the chefs had experienced a medical emergency and was promptly attended to.

"He is currently receiving treatment in hospital and is in stable condition. We appreciate the swift actions of those who assisted him and the medical team for their care," she told ST on Thursday.

Dr Siow's brother, Siow Jia Rui — who was also at the reunion dinner — said: "If there wasn't anyone around to intervene early, he (the chef) likely would have died.

"Everything turned out in the right place, at the right time. It was a good outcome."

In May 2024, an accident and emergency doctor was saved by his tennis playing partners, who are also doctors, after collapsing from cardiac arrest during a game.

A number of organisations like the Singapore Red Cross conduct courses for members of the public to develop emergency response skills.They include the Singapore Heart Foundation, where people can learn skills such as CPR and how to use the automated external defibrillator (AED) through the Restart A Heart Programme.

An AED is a portable medical device that delivers an electrical shock through the chest to the heart.

If a bystander performs early CPR and uses an AED, it can increase a victim's survival rate by up to 50 per cent.

A report in 2023 showed that members of the public, who had signed up on SCDF's myResponder App, attended to 7,670 incidents over the last five years, more than half of which were cardiac arrest cases.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.