This is a first hand account of yesterday afternoon’s events which occurred while I was working in camp. No specific identities other than my own will be revealed to prevent embarrassment.

1.35pm:
I walk downstairs towards the canteen and find my boss lying on the MDC steps with 2 ppl attending to her. We deliberate between driving her straight to Tan Tock Seng or activating our operationally ready Nee Soon Medical Centre (NSMC).

1.40pm:
The Maj walks by and seeing the situation, immediately decides to activate the Medical Center to send an ambulance. What a decision…

1.55pm:
(notice the length of time taken for an ambulance to arrive from not more than 600m away. In a reasonable car like a 320i which the Maj had parked right beside us, driven by an adept driver like *ahem* me, we would have easily gotten her to Tan Tok Seng in that time)

Ambulance a.k.a. rover arrives after first going around MDC to SAF Band which is behind. We had to send a person to inform the ambulance a.k.a. rover driver he is in the wrong place.

2 eager NSFs rush out with a stretcher.

They realize that they are unable to lift the fainted person and require the assistance of MDCs dancers & managers.

2.00pm:
We arrive at the Nee Soon Medical Center. The place looks set in the 70s and used to film shows like ‘Growing Up’. The NSMC staff check her condition & attach a drip, oxygen mask & ECG to her before telling me to leave the room.

2.10pm:
Boss is in a lot of pain and lets them know through much groaning. The NSMC staff act decisively and decide to send her to Tan Tock Seng hospital.

2.25pm:
Boss is loaded into the ambulance a.k.a. rover and we set off. (Again notice the length of time taken…)

Just before we leave, a NSMC staff pops his head into the ambulance a.k.a. rover and reminds the driver where to go. He makes a slight chuckle and comments that they went to the wrong place the last time.

The ambulance a.k.a. rover takes off at a lightning fast speed, hitting a peak of 57km/h and goes by the really quick route of Upper Thomson Road. (Just only 11 traffic lights. I inquired why he din take the expressway and he said this is their standard route.)

Somewhere along Upper Thomson Road, The ECG, (I think that’s the part which monitors the blood pressure & heart rate) gives a ‘peeeeeep’ sound like in E.R. and I look over to the medic beside me and asks him if the machine is spoilt. He looks unfazed and just tells me coolly that the battery has run out. Ah yes…

My boss’s phone rings and it’s her daughter. She asks me what her condition is and I ask the medic. He replies me instantly with his astute intuition that she is stable.

After doing a few checks himself with a manual blood pressure monitor, the medic picks up his phone and calls someone. I hear him mumble something along the lines of “Err.. her blood pressure is dropping”. I slap my forehead and shake it.

2.50pm:
We arrive at Tan Tock Seng A&E. (2.25pm – 2.50pm. That’s 25mins. Hey what a coincidence! That’s the same length of time my 167 takes to travel to Nee Soon Camp every morning from my place at Newton)

The medic jumps out of the ambulance a.k.a. rover and rolls over one of the roller stretchers provided by the hospital. Just as we load her onto it, a staff from Tan Tock Seng runs out to stop us. “Wait!" he exclaims. "The stretcher is placed the wrong way round. Her head should be on the other side!” This happened right in front of my boss’s husband who had just arrived.

After passing my boss’s belongings to her husband we decide to make our way back to camp.

3.05pm:
We leave in a car to go back to camp via the expressway

3.20pm:
We arrive back in camp