THANKS to seven traffic police officers’ timely rescue and appropriate dispatching protocol, a bus driver who suffered from sudden heart attack while driving was taken to a hospital to receive emergency treatment during rush hour Friday morning, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

On Friday morning, through a surveillance camera, the Guangming District traffic police center found a bus stopped at a corner of a roundabout in the Gongming area, appearing to have encountered an unexpected situation.

The center dispatched a traffic police officer to check the bus and the officer saw the bus driver, identified as Geng Jinquan, lying on the driver’s seat and appearing to be in extreme pain. There were no passengers on the bus at the time when Zeng Jun, the traffic police officer, arrived at the scene, according to the Daily.

“The driver told me that he could hardly breathe,” said Zeng. Realizing that the driver might be having a heart attack, Zeng reported back to the control room.

Since it was during morning peak traffic hours, the roads in the area were congested. Still, the control room dispatched another three traffic police officers to guide an ambulance through a shortcut to reach the bus driver, despite driving on the wrong side of the road.

Zeng and the three other traffic police officers remained at the scene of the incident and directed traffic around the roundabout.

The ambulance managed to pick up Geng in about five minutes. Seven police officers then drove in front of the ambulance to pave way for it all the way to the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen Hospital (Guangming) in less than two minutes.

The hospital also provided green passage access for Geng and arranged an emergency surgery for him within 20 minutes.

According to the hospital, Geng was in critical condition and could have lost his life if he had not been sent to the hospital in such a timely fashion.

Geng’s condition improved after a one-hour surgery, but he will still undergo further surgery next week. He was praised for his calmness when suffering from heart attack.

According to video footage provided by one of the passengers, Geng had been covering his chest with his hand while driving along Changchun Road. The bus stopped at an intersection to give way for pedestrians and did not start again. (Zhang Qian)