Fang Ping (R), a 79-year-old man, expresses his thanks to Xu Huali (R), a young nurse from a local hospital in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. [yangtse.com]

A young female nurse saved the life of a 79-year-old man who suddenly went into a coma on November 5 when on the subway in east China's Jiangsu Province.

Xu Huali, who works at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, the Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School in the province, talked about how she dealt with such an emergency and treated the senior man called Fang Ping during a local interview on November 17.

Xu said that she was sitting opposite Fang on the subway while listening to music via headphones. Upon hearing a loud bang, she immediately rushed to the man to check what was wrong with him.

“I patted his shoulders and felt his carotid artery when he was lying on the subway, but found he had lost consciousness,” Xu recalled. After confirming the man may have had a sudden cardiac arrest, the quick-witted nurse did not hesitate to begin CPR.

While the man regained his breathing, Xu left quietly without leaving her name or contact information. One passenger commented that Xu's medical skills were very professional and asked where she came from. The young woman just maintained that she is a nurse at the nearby hospital.

Praised by the public, Xu said: "I didn't think a lot at that moment and my first reaction was to save the person. Everyone would do what I did when encountering something like that. It's no big deal."

Being a nurse herself, Xu knows more than anyone else that rescuing a patient is a race against time.

"I couldn't wait. First aid should be carried out within four minutes after people stop breathing because it's the golden time to rescue their life, Xu claimed.

(Source: yangtse.com/Translated and edited by Women of China)

Editor: Jane Wang