Joshua de Rozario said a large crowd surrounded him and his friends after the accident happened in Johor. As neither he nor his friends had the contact numbers of the police or ambulance, one of those who had gathered at the site, called for help.

“I do not know the time the ambulance was called, what time they arrived, as I was trying to attend to my friend,” he said.

“It felt like a long time… like more than 30 minutes,” he told FMT in a telephone interview.

Earlier today, Health Department Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said computerised ambulance service records revealed that it took 13 minutes from the time the emergency call was made to the time the ambulance arrived at the scene.

He said Tan was admitted to Hospital Sultanah Aminah’s (HSA) Red Zone upon arrival and given emergency treatment immediately.

The emergency department team, he said, also conducted X-rays and a CT-scan without asking for any deposit in view of the fact it was an emergency, and Tan was also referred to the neurosurgery team without any demand for payment due to the injury to his brain.

The allegations to the contrary, first reported by a Singapore-based news portal, had spread in other online media, provoking netizens to heap criticisms against the ambulance service providers and the hospital staff in Johor.

“No, I am not accusing anyone. Whatever it is, this will not be able to bring Justinian back,” de Rozario said.

“I just hope that whoever the driver (who hit Tan) is, can be held accountable,” he added.

De Rozario said there could have been a communication breakdown when treatment was being administered at the emergency unit as he and his friends did not speak Malay, and the hospital staff spoke little English.

“What I understood was that they wanted us to pay first, but we were not carrying that amount of cash,” he said.

“So they pointed us towards the ATM to withdraw the money. We paid, the receipt was issued.

“I was then asked to go to the Red Zone as I needed to hand over the receipt,” he said, adding that after that he was told to leave.

De Rozario said he did not wish for the matter regarding the earlier allegations to be prolonged further.

He said he was grateful for all the help that had been extended to Tan, and noted that things could have been worse.

“I am sure that everyone, from the paramedics to the doctors and nurses, did their best to help Justinian.

“It does hurt, because I have lost a good friend. He’s gone,” he said.

Tan was cremated several hours ago, after a wake which lasted three days.

De Rozario, who had been friends with Tan since primary school, remembered him as someone who was selfless and would go out of his way to help others.

“His family is a big thing to him. It is something he puts first,” de Rozario said.

“But even then he would never neglect his friends. He would find a way to make everyone happy.”

In recalling his fondest memory of his friend, de Rozario related how Tan was constantly by his side when he was recuperating from major surgery to remove a tumour in his leg five or six years ago.

De Rozario said he was on medical leave for about nine months and unable to walk for six months because of the surgery.

“Back then, Justinian skipped school to come and visit me at home. He would bring me food, hang out with me and play games,” he said.

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