Colwood has its own Clark Kent. But rather than a pair of glasses and a job at the Daily Planet, this caped crusader dons a bow tie and sits in the mayor’s chair.
Mayor Doug Kobayashi pulled over to help a man who was having a medical emergency on the site of the road near Wishart and Latoria Road, while driving to Monday’s (Feb. 13) council meeting. A number of cars had driven past the man, so Kobayashi initially didn’t think there was anything going on.
“Initially, I thought it was a plastic bag blowing in the wind and then as I got closer I realized,” said Kobayashi.
As he approached, Kobayashi said it seemed like the man was having a seizure. Kobayashi moved him onto the sidewalk and put him into the recovery position, whereupon the man started to vomit.
“It was way back when I had done the training, and the recovery position was the one thing I remembered,” Kobayashi said. “I was thinking afterward about it and of course I didn’t have my phone to Google what to do.”
Since he was heading to a council meeting, Kobayashi hadn’t brought his phone with him because he didn’t want it to go off and interrupt.
So he waved to flag down another driver, who called for an ambulance, then another man arrived who had a blanket in his car to help keep the man warm (it was raining heavily that night) and fellow city council member Ian Ward also showed up to offer assistance.
Ward later recounted the story on the Colwood Community Association Facebook page. The pair of councillors continued onto their meeting while the other two stayed with the man until the ambulance arrived.
A spokesperson from BC Emergency Health Services said ambulances were called at 5:28 p.m. on Monday and took one patient to the hospital in stable condition.
“It was quite a team of effort. I’m proud of our citizens who stopped to help,” said Kobayashi.