BBC Cardiff final is stalled by medical crisis
mainThe song final of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World was halted tonight for one and a half hours after an audience member was taken ill.
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I hope this person is OK (he/she obviously has good artistic taste) but…90 minutes ? Blimey – how long does it take paramedics to arrive ?
More than just about paramedics and certainly not someone simply fainting. You can’t just move sick people out of the way if it’s a heart attack or resuscitation is involved or potentially saving someone’s life. It’s not about how long it took the paramedics to get there but what they were able to administer to that poor person.
Sadly an audience member seated very near the stage suffered a heart attack just after the start of the concert. Medical help was quickly organised but it meant that the person neeeded to be treated in situ and the autitorium was thus cleared. Thankfully we were later told he had been successfully resusitated and taken to hospital. It was understandably upsetting for everyone present, not least the artists on stage and those sitting in adjacent seats to the incident (as we were ourselves). One must commend the management of St David’s Hall, the BBC (who must have been thrown into chaos) and also several audience members who so quickly took control of the situation. Finally our thanks and praise to the young Chinese tenor Mingjie Lei and pianist Llyr Williams whose performance had been stopped. The tenor later returned to sing with such a depth of feeling that he moved everyone present and earned an especially warm reception. We wish the gentleman concerned a speedy recovery.