The Korea Herald

지나쌤

From candy to CPR, police step up to save citizens in need

By Yoon Min-sik

Published : Nov. 27, 2024 - 17:31

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A police officer of the Seoul Guemcheon Police Station runs to a store to buy candy for a woman who collapsed from low blood sugar, in this video posted Tuesday by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. (Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency) A police officer of the Seoul Guemcheon Police Station runs to a store to buy candy for a woman who collapsed from low blood sugar, in this video posted Tuesday by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. (Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency)

Several stories of police officers stepping up to provide urgently needed medical attention have been reported across the country this week.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Tuesday that a quick-thinking police officer saved a woman suffering from hypoglycemia by buying candy for her.

In a video posted on the SMPA's official YouTube page, the woman can be seen falling to the floor in Geumcheon-gu, Seoul on Nov. 18, shaking and unable to communicate. A police officer from the Seoul Guemcheon Police Station arrived on the scene and attempted to talk to her, but she only repeated, "I have to get home."

The officer used the woman's phone to call her grandson, who told him that she was suffering from low blood sugar. The officer ran to a nearby store to buy candy, which the woman ate, making a full recovery.

In another story reported by local media outlet Edaily on Wednesday, Senior Inspector Kim Beom-su used cardiopulmonary resuscitation to save a man in his 60s who passed out on the street.

Kim was heading home after dinner with a friend when he saw a man fall to the ground near Gongdeok Station in Mapo-gu, Seoul. He asked a passerby to call the 119 emergency service and performed CPR. The man started breathing again after two minutes.

The elderly man made a full recovery and went home with his family.

Kim said that years of CPR training, formerly as a soldier in the special forces and as a police officer, prepared him to provide the assistance the man needed.