Woman, 20, died waiting 85 minutes for ambulance
A STUDENT died from a ruptured spleen after waiting 85 minutes for an ambulance due to mistakes at a 999 control centre, an inquest heard.
Kathryn Richmond, 20, lay in agony and struggling for breath as she waited. But six of the 13 ambulances for her area were reportedly off the road as crews were taking a break.
The inquest heard her emergency call was also wrongly downgraded twice, resulting in two ambulances that were on their way to her being diverted elsewhere.
Struggled
When she was eventually taken by ambulance to Poole Hospital in Dorset she went into cardiac arrest. Although she was revived and had emergency surgery, she died.
A consultant general surgeon said that had Kathryn received hospital treatment earlier she would probably have survived.
The inquest heard that 999 control room staff were pressured into thinking twice about reporting life-threatening “red” cases as a lack of ambulances meant they struggled to meet response-time targets.
As a “red” case, the ambulance should have arrived in eight minutes. The centre was said to have a screen on the wall showing daily performance figures on the number of red calls being met on time.
The clinician who made the fateful decision to downgrade Kathryn’s case claimed he was put under pressure to review red calls by a colleague responsible for assigning ambulances who was sitting two feet away.
Kathryn, from Poole, suffered a ruptured spleen due to a rare complication from glandular fever and collapsed at home in April, 2015.
Coroner Rachael Griffin recorded a narrative finding at Bournemouth Town Hall.
She said: “The cause of Kathryn’s death was a natural cause because she had glandular fever. However, the delay in her receiving the necessary life-saving treatment was causative or contributory to her death.
“The delay was due to individuals’ judgments, assessments and mistakes – those are not system failures.”
The coroner will write to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt recommending rotas and meal breaks for ambulance crews across the UK be staggered to avoid a similar tragedy.
Kathryn’s parents, company directors Alan and Jacqueline, spoke of their heartbreak. Mrs Richmond said: “We hope the proposed changes mean this will never happen again.”