Kindness saves: 16-yr.-old student in Baguio performs CPR to rescue an elderly suffering from heart attack

Baguio City, Philippines – Not all heroes are found in battles and wars, some are onboard a jeepney. This is what a 16-year-old in Baguio City proved after alighting from a jeep to save the life of a senior citizen.

On December 4, JC Sumbad, a 16-year-old Special Education student at Easter College was commuting in a jeepney when he saw a man lying face down along the Dizon Subdivision. He immediately urged the driver to stop the vehicle and got down from the vehicle.

Without thinking twice, the 16-year-old performed first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the 64-year-old stroke survivor who turned out to have suffered a heart attack at the time, the Baguio City Public Information Office reported.

According to the son of the 64-year-old, Victor Chua, medical responders told him they could have lost the senior citizen right then and there had it not been for the teenager’s quick response.

Chua said that his father has been discharged from the intensive care unit, and is set to undergo a heart bypass operation.

The son, meantime, acknowledged JC’s kindness and compassion. He shared he offered the 16-year-old cash but the latter politely refused to accept it.  

"I hope that the kid will be commended officially.  I offered a cash reward but he politely declined because he said kindness should be normalized," he was quoted saying.

He further shared that JC also helped another person in Abanao in July saying, “As a young man at 16 years old, he changed our lives.”

Mayor Benjamin Magalong who learned about the heroism of the boy lauded him, acknowledging that his ‘compassion and love for others is commendable and worth emulating.’