Toddler with bleeding foot playing on road in Punggol rescued by passer-by while others purportedly look on
A barefoot toddler playing with a ball on a road in Punggol caught the attention of a concerned passer-by, who said she was shocked that no one else stepped forward to help.
Instagram user @giselewoon said in a post that she was walking from Waterway Point to One Punggol on the evening of June 20 when she spotted the boy.
“I saw a little boy, maybe one to two years old, alone and BAREFOOT, playing with his ball ON THE ROAD. He fell, got back up, and started running towards the main road,” she recalled.
Although she was pushing her daughter in a stroller at the time, she managed to catch the boy and bring him to safety, later realising that he was lost.
She eventually reunited him with a woman she believed to be the family’s domestic helper, who was carrying a younger child.
However, what struck her was how other passers-by responded to the incident.
“If people saw him, why was I, the person pushing a stroller (with NO FREE HANDS), the person to catch him?” she asked.
“His toe was bleeding from falling on the ROAD, because he was BAREFOOT. Like, come on, I think we as a society can do so much better than this.”
She also appealed for the child’s parents to contact her, stressing that she would have wanted to know about the incident if she were in their position.
In a separate incident on May 18, a toddler wandering alone in public with a heavily soiled diaper narrowly missed being hit by a van before a passer-by brought him to safety.
‘Society has lost its heart’: Netizens empathise with passer-by
The post garnered over 11,600 likes and 2,700 shares, with many netizens commending giselewoon’s “compassionate” actions and “motherly instincts”.
Several recounted similar experiences, while one lamented that “our so-called progressive society really has lost its heart”.
Others offered a different perspective, urging commenters to refrain from placing the blame entirely on the helper.
“I have seen kids running off on their own when the maid was not looking,” the netizen pointed out.
“Thank you for being the mom all other moms sometimes need,” another commented.
Stomp has reached out to giselewoon for more information.
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