I was on my way to evening service on bus 51 this afternoon when suddenly there was this loud thump on the upperdeck of the bus. Everyone looked up in shock when this pair of mother and daughter who was sitting right at the front yelped in excitement while hurriedly moving to the middle of the bus. As it turns out, some old dude had collapsed from his seat right unto deck. Everyone was buzzing with amazement as this guy just laid there motionless. Someone even suggested the guy must have been sleeping and fell on the deck knocking himself out cold.

Anyway someone went down to inform the bus driver who stopped the bus and came up to check out the situation. Despite repeated calls by the driver, the guy remained motionless- lying in an awkward position while the rest of the passengers just craned their neck still wondering what the heck was going on. It was something so out of the ordinary, so surreal, none of us really knew how to react. Afterall it is not something you see everyday. So I went up and helped the bus driver to at least lift the guy from off the floor onto the seat. And let me tell you, that was no easy task. The old looked about to be in his 60s and had a long white beard. From the looks of it, he couldn’t have weigh more than 60kg. But when we tried to lift him up, it was 60kg of dead weight. The guy was totally knocked out and lifting 60kg of slipping sliding dead weight was no easy task- even for two grown men. It was not without a fair amount of effort that we finally managed to get him onto the seat. I noticed that there was a few drops of blood on the floor. When I looked at the guy, all he did was let out a gasp- still unconscious. Apparently when he felled, he had chipped a tooth and cut his mouth in the process. So his mouth was bleeding slightly. All I could do was to sheepishly tell the bus driver he was bleeding from a cut in his mouth. I was still somewhat confused about exactly what to do.

The driver asked someone to call for the paramedics and ordered everyone off the bus. I’ll have to say, I was pretty impressed when the paramedics actually arrived before the next 51 came. I don’t know if that says something about the efficiency of the paramedics or the inefficiency of our bus service. A few minutes later when the next 51 came, we boarded the bus. As the bus left, I could see the medic performing CPR on the unconscious old man.

While I was singing this hymn, I couldn’t help but wonder if the poor old guy has already passed on. It didn’t occur to me then, but perhaps the guy has had a heart attack or a stroke and just collapsed. Nobody has really noted anything strange and I was sitting in the middle of the bus. But one possibility was the old guy was already unconscious in his seat for sometime before the motion of the bus has actually cause him to fall from his seat. It didn’t even occur to me than when I was lifting him up onto the seat to check for vital signs and heartbeat. It was so surreal I kind of felt like it was happening in a dream.

I hope he is alright.