A recent recruit of a popular take-out, food-delivery company has been recognised for his efforts to save the lives of a father and son who had lost consciousness in their store, restoring some faith in our yellow-vested, e-bike riding friends.
On 16 November, Li Qingquan was doing what he does every day, all day long, and much of the evening too, namely collecting and delivering people’s orders.
Li works delivery for Meituan. It was a little after 08:00 when he came to a snack bar on Changwei Lu in Nanjing’s Jianye District to deliver goods. Since Li knows the snack bar’s owner on account of his frequency of visit, he usually calls out that there is a delivery and then just leaves the goods.
But that day, no one answered. His suspicions raised, Li opened the door and had a look inside. Li saw both the shopkeeper and his son lying on the kitchen floor. Guessing a gas leak to be the cause, he immediately shouted for help.
Li later recalled, “It didn’t feel right. It’s impossible for both of them to have completely collapsed”.
With his first reaction being that they had been poisoned by gas, Li tried quickly to pull the two to safety, but was unable to move both of them. After shouting to a nearby shopkeeper for help, their joint efforts got both outside.
Asking passers by to call 110 and 120, a panting Li and the shopkeeper then found cardboard to fan the two, putting them on their sides and trying to feed them water.
Both those who had lost consciousness soon recovered in hospital. But it had been a close thing. Hence it was that Nanjing’s Jianye District police department chose to yesterday award Li for his courageous deeds. A golden flag was also presented to him by the younger of the two he had saved.
The snack bar owner recalled that he and his father had turned on the gas to steam rice in the kitchen. Soon feeling a little dizzy, he thought he perhaps didn’t sleep well the night before.
“But when I looked back, I found that my father had fallen to the floor. I wanted to go outside for help, but I soon lost consciousness”, said the anonymous owner.
The Yangtze Evening News has reported that doctors later confirmed the two would have been greatly harmed by the gas leak had they not been found in time by Li.
“I tried everything I could think of”, said Li. “After all, life is vital. At that time, it was too late to consider too much. Save people first.”
