As a consultant at the Department of Emergency Medicine at the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and vice-president of the Association of Women Doctors, Singapore (AWDS), this Great Women Of Our Time Awards alumnus is committed to community work. With the aim of empowering children to save lives, this mother-of-six launched DARE (which stands for Dispatcher-Assisted First Responder), a nationwide initiative which involves conducting training programmes for students aged between 11 and 17 years old. “DARE aims to educate at least one member of every household on basic resuscitation,” she explains. “Studies have shown that cardiac arrest victims are in danger if bystanders do not initiate resuscitation immediately. Out of every 30 people, 29 die waiting for the ambulance to come. DARE encourages you to perform basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which takes only five to eight minutes. Instead of a full CPR (chest compressions, and followed by ventilation), chest compressions will do the job for adult victims of cardiac arrest. The paramedics start ventilation when they arrive. Those eight minutes may not mean anything to you but it makes a big difference to the victim. For every minute that his heart stops receiving oxygen, chances of death increase by 10 per cent.”

“When DARE was started last year, we worked with students because we wanted to inculcate the culture of helping people. When they grow up, going to someone’s aid will come naturally: Someone needs my help so I’m going to help him,” Dr Kua adds, “We cut the standard four-hour training programme to under an hour to fit into a classroom session. We want kids to know that learning to resuscitate is as important as learning Mathematics, English and Science. And in addition to a video, there’s a hands-on component for everyone to practise with a half-body mannequin and an actual AED.”

Official website

As a consultant at the Department of Emergency Medicine at the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and vice-president of the Association of Women Doctors, Singapore (AWDS), this Great Women Of Our Time Awards alumnus is committed to community work. With the aim of empowering children to save lives, this mother-of-six launched DARE (which stands for Dispatcher-Assisted First Responder), a nationwide initiative which involves conducting training programmes for students aged between 11 and 17 years old. “DARE aims to educate at least one member of every household on basic resuscitation,” she explains. “Studies have shown that cardiac arrest victims are in danger if bystanders do not initiate resuscitation immediately. Out of every 30 people, 29 die waiting for the ambulance to come. DARE encourages you to perform basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which takes only five to eight minutes. Instead of a full CPR (chest compressions, and followed by ventilation), chest compressions will do the job for adult victims of cardiac arrest. The paramedics start ventilation when they arrive. Those eight minutes may not mean anything to you but it makes a big difference to the victim. For every minute that his heart stops receiving oxygen, chances of death increase by 10 per cent.”

“When DARE was started last year, we worked with students because we wanted to inculcate the culture of helping people. When they grow up, going to someone’s aid will come naturally: Someone needs my help so I’m going to help him,” Dr Kua adds, “We cut the standard four-hour training programme to under an hour to fit into a classroom session. We want kids to know that learning to resuscitate is as important as learning Mathematics, English and Science. And in addition to a video, there’s a hands-on component for everyone to practise with a half-body mannequin and an actual AED.”

Official website