To rescue workers in Ho Chi Minh City, saving the life of a person attempting suicide may put them into unexpectedly amusing situations, and the job demands a combination of patience and craft.

Emergency workers strive at all costs to pluck people intending to kill themselves from possible death, said Le Quang Thuan, the leader of a rescue squad in Ho Chi Minh City.

This may involve fulfilling every desire of the suicidal people but probably in a tricky fashion.

Thuan recalled two successful efforts in which rescue officers deployed such tactics.

A lovelorn man stepped over the barrier of a local hospital’s fifth floor, threatening loudly to jump from the height if any one approached him.

The 19-year-old desired to see his girlfriend – a requirement that rescue workers responding to the emergency said they would satisfy.

The officers asked the local government to bring her to the scene but in vain due to her family’s disapproval, which prompted them to buy time by telling him she was on the way.

Whenever he needed water because of shouting for a long time in scorching heat, the rescue workers had a chance to come nearer, and finally convinced him to extend his arm for a grasp.

In another case, a woman in her 40s who had ascended a pylon on the southern metropolis’ Ton Duc Thang Street persistently refused to climb down despite rescue workers’ persuasion.

“I want to see a handsome and gentle man with lots of money,” the woman said, looking tired.

Looking at each other with anxiety, the workers called one of their colleagues who enjoyed such an appearance to show up in smart clothes and stand at the structure holding a wad of cash.

The woman came to the ground on the strength of the man, who treated her to a meal and brought her to her senses, before giving her to the authorities.

Rescue workers may face danger in their professional life.

Nguyen Chi Thanh, the squad’s deputy head, said multiple scars on his hand and one on his face reminded him of an event in 2005, where he fell to the ground after stepping on the damaged corrugated iron sheet of a roof while secretly moving to forcibly bring a suicidal man to safety.

The fall gave a spinal injury to Thanh, who resumed his job three months after the episode.

“That case was serious, but it’s a normal part of our work to be hit by stones or have a fist land on our face,” Thanh said.

Calming those saved from self-killing attempts and preempting their suicidal thought are a practice by the municipality’s rescue workers.

Thanh said he once accompanied a man he rescued to the hospital and talked with him until the man returned to normal, even though in principle his task already ended right after taking the man out of danger.

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