When she saw a man collapse in Toa Payoh bus interchange, Miss Mabel Ong, 18, jumped into action.

The recent Institute of Technical Education (ITE) graduate ran forward to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the man.

It saved his life.

Recalling the April 25 incident, Miss Ong told The New Paper she had just had lunch and was heading back to school when she noticed a commotion.

She said: "I saw this group of passers-by gathered around the man who had collapsed but they were not doing what they should."

She said some women were applying ointment on him.

Miss Ong said she told someone to call for an ambulance, while she pumped the man's chest to help him breathe.

She said: "His breathing was rather weak. I also asked people around to find an automated external defibrillator (AED)."

The AED is a portable device used to treat sudden cardiac arrest. It can diagnose the problem, suggest solutions and send an electric shock to the heart to revive it.

Miss Ong said she used the device to scan the collapsed man and administered three shocks to get his heart beating.

In all, she worked on him for about 15 to 20 minutes before the ambulance arrived.

She said: "For me, I could not tolerate it if I had just stood there and not helped, especially if others did not know what to do.

"When I help people, I don't really think about anything else. I just do what I have to do and stay focused, because it doesn't help if I panic."

The man's wife, Ms Marilyn Wong, 40, a business consultant, told TNP: "I am so thankful to her. She saved my husband's life.

"It is lucky that she knew how to use the AED because if she had given it to me, I wouldn't have known what to do at all. Without her, he would have been gone."

She was at the automated teller machine when she saw her husband had fainted. He was later taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital and has since been discharged.

Saving people is not new to Miss Ong. She has been working part-time at Safra Toa Payoh as a lifeguard at the swimming pool since 2015.

As part of her lifeguard course, Miss Ong learnt basic first aid.

In December 2016, she helped a man who had collapsed in the pool and performed CPR on him as well.

Dr Ang Kiam Wee, principal of ITE College Central, said: "For Mabel to step up and perform emergency cardiac arrest procedures with confidence, we can see she is a brave and civic-minded youth.

"I am proud she has set a fine example for her peers..."