A senior neighbourhood-watch member’s emergency first-aid training proved vital when she helped save a fellow resident’s life in Tafelsig East on Friday 27 March.
Petronella Sauls and watch chair Stella Cornelissen responded to a community alert after a senior citizen collapsed at her home and was found unconscious by her housemate, who is also elderly.
“This lady was literally going to die,” she told TygerBurger. “If I didn’t step in there at that time she was literally going to die.”
The incident began around 05:00 when the woman’s housemate found her lying on the floor. The housemate issued a call on the community chat group, which forwarded the call to the neighbourhood-watch group, which had been trained as first responders and in calling an ambulance.
Sauls saw the message and responded.
Unconscious
Sauls and Cornelissen arrived around 07:00 to find the woman unconscious and unresponsive.
Using her Emergency First Aid (EFA) training, Sauls checked the woman’s blood-sugar level, which registered a dangerously low 2.3. She performed CPR, placed the patient in the recovery position and cleared her airways. “I could see that she was choking in her own mucus,” she said.
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Ambulance
Meanwhile, Cornelissen tried to get hold of emergency medical services.
An hour later she spotted an ambulance in the area and flagged them down.
“I spoke nicely to the ambulance man and he came to assist us,” Cornelissen said in a message.
She noted ongoing challenges with emergency services in areas designated as “red zones” requiring police escorts.
The woman was put on a drip by paramedics and when she regained consciousness she refused to go to hospital.
However, when the incident repeated almost verbatim the following day the paramedics took her straight to the hospital, where she is currently recovering well.
Importance of training
Alderman JP Smith, Mayco member for Safety and Security, praised the response: “I want to commend this member who put her training into action to save a life. Members are often the first responders to an incident and in this case, they had the right tools to be able to assist.”
Sauls received her EFA training through a City of Cape Town programme for neighbourhood-watch members. The training goes beyond basic first aid, preparing community members to act as first responders while waiting for emergency medical services.
“As a neighbourhood-watch member, thank you, City of Cape Town, for allowing us to undergo these trainings for free,” Sauls said, “because they are usually costly when doing it through other entities.”
The incident highlights the broader role of neighbourhood-watch members beyond crime prevention.
“We are not only there to fight crime,” Sauls explained, “we are there to support our community in anything because we are well trained in different things.”
Cornelissen emphasised the importance of such training: “We as neighbourhood watch members must be everything the community wants, ’cause most of us do have the knowledge of what to do when and how.”
She thanked Hyde Park neighbourhood watch chair Vernon Fortune for initiating that the training be given to members.
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