'Keyboard heroes' do not save lives. Doctors do.

A man fell to the ground outside Changde Railway Station, Changde city, Hunan province, on Aug 14, and two young women rushed to help him. Video captured by a closed circuit television camera shows they administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for 20 minutes, till an ambulance arrived and rushed the man to hospital. However, the man died there.

The two women were medical students on their way to catch a train to Chengdu, 1,043 kilometers away. The dead man's family members expressed their gratitude to the two students for their efforts to save the man's life.

The incident also found mention on social networking sites, where the two students got their share of praise. Until, someone posted a nasty comment. "A day later, the family sued the two medical students for administering medical aid without having obtained a necessary doctor's certificate yet." The comment was a lie, but it received over 61,000 likes.

No one knows why someone concocted a lie that can break the trust between medical workers and patients. Doctors do their best to save lives, but they are not gods. There will be times when they will fail, leaving them as shattered as their patients' family members.

And one cannot expect a certified doctor to be standing on the scene any time someone needs emergency medical assistance. In such cases, anybody with any experience, however limited, should try to pitch in.

In fact, more people should be encouraged to learn first aid skills such as CPR, so as to be able to save lives. In the Changde case above, even the family members of the man thanked the medical students. But some "keypad villains" with idle minds sought to defame their good deeds in exchange for clicks.