Assistant Secretary of State António Lacerda Sales was the first doctor to the rescue of a female motorcyclist involved in a collision with a car outside his office in Lisbon yesterday.
Reports explain the 59-year-old “heard the noise of the accident… saw the woman on the ground, and left the health ministry building to provide assistance”.
Mr Lacerda Sales is known for his sensitive handling of Covid press conferences; his emotion on the first day of the pandemic in which Portugal suffered no fatalities, but very little has been made of the fact that he is a orthopedic specialist with particular focus on sports injuries.
As such his intervention yesterday may well have been crucial.
Tabloid reports confirm that he “stabilised the victim”, who had suffered injuries to her head, before INEM paramedics arrived.
The woman was then transported to São José Hospital where her condition has been described as “stable”.
Correio da Manhã contacted the Ministry of Health afterwards, “for a reaction” from Mr Lacerda Sales, to be told he wouldn’t be saying anything.
Once the accident victim was in the hands of INEM, the assistant Secretary of State “returned to his office”, says the paper.
