Above and Beyond the Call of Duty

CEBU, Philippines - Probably because most of us are preoccupied with our very own problems in life, a lot of us have become passive to the things that are going on around us. In our rush to get into our daily grind, we fail to see the little girl who fell on her knees at the sidewalk or the old woman who needed our assistance to cross the street.

Most of us are too busy to notice what is going on around us, but not 27-year-old Clyde Ian Lao of Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa’s Acqua Italian Restaurant.

Clyde was awarded by the Shangri-La Hotels with the Above and Beyond the Call of Duty (ABCD) Award for taking time to save a life.

Clyde, who is a Service Associate at Acqua, was riding his motorcycle on his way to work sometime in November last year. He was in a hurry that morning because he only had a few more minutes left before his shift starts when, upon passing by an area in Pusok, Lapu-Lapu, he saw a construction worker, who was fixing one of the lampposts in the area, got electrocuted. The worker fell more than 10 feet on the ground and, Clyde recalled, the area started to smell of burnt flesh.

“I sped by thinking I might be late for work if I stop but then I realized that I needed to help the poor man, so I went back,” he said.

It was Clyde’s instincts to save a life that made him stop and go back to help the man who was lying lifeless on the street. Just a few weeks before the incident, Clyde was among the selected staff of Acqua to undergo training and certification in Standard First-Aid and Basic Life Support – CPR Certification with the Philippine National Red Cross.

“I have learned during my training that whether you like it or not, you have to help, especially if you know what to do in emergency cases such as that one,” Clyde said.

He immediately took control of the situation and asked one of those in the crowd to call for an ambulance. He also asked the help of some people to control the crowd that was already gathering around the victim.

“I checked for vitals. The victim had no pulse and was not breathing so I started performing CPR,” recalled Clyde who said that at that time, all he had in mind was that he needed to revive the victim.

After a few cycles of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and pumps of the chest, Clyde felt a faint and soft breathing and a pulse. The victim was still unconscious but these were signs that the person has a chance to live.

Then, the Emergency Rescue Unite Foundation (ERUF) arrived on the scene. Clyde gave the doctor his accounts of what happened since he was the one who first responded to the situation. The victim was then loaded into the ambulance and was taken to the nearest hospital. One of the paramedics approached Clyde before leaving the scene and thanked him, saying that the man could have died if he was not given first-aid.

It was a good feeling to save a life, Clyde said, and, upon arriving at the resort that day, he immediately informed Employee Relations Manager Salvador Toring of what happened.

Clyde’s heroic deed did not only inspire the staff at Shangri-La Mactan, but all the Shangri-La properties worldwide as well, and earned him the ABCD Award for 2010.

“Now everyone wants to have a Red Cross training,” he said with a smile.

Clyde is very much like you and me. He, too, is busy and has problems to think about. But what sets him apart is that he took time and stopped to save a life.

“Don’t panic, be tough and apply what you learned. We need to help those who need our help because this could also happen to us.” (FREEMAN)