‘THEY COULD HAVE SAVED JAMES’ LIFE’
Catalogue of‘ failures’ led to critically-ill man with severed artery left waiting hour for emergency services
A man who died after suffering severe blood loss following an horrific fall at home which left his arm “hanging off ” might have survived but for a “fatally flawed” response from emergency services.
James Quinn, known to his family as Jimmy, suffered serious injuries to his right arm after falling into a glass cabinet at his Washington home.
But a 999 call by the stricken 61-year-old led to a catalogue of errors and a communication breakdown, which meant he died from what a coroner described as “potentially survivable” injuries.
Now both Northumbria Police and North East Ambulance Services have promised to learn lessons from the tragic death.
An inquest into Mr Quinn’s death heard he suffered a fall at his home on July 1, 2016.
At 7.05pm, he made a 999 call and asked for an ambulance, telling the operator that his “arm was hanging off ”.
But the operator failed to record information about the seriousness of Mr Quinn’s injuries – which should have triggered the immediate dispatch of an ambualnce to arrive at his home in eight minutes or less.
Seventeen minutes later, when an ambulance had still not arrived, Mr Quinn called 999 again.
The call was this time graded correctly and Mr Quinn told the operator he was unable to make it to the door which was locked.
He said he kept passing out and that someone would have to break in.
The inquest, which took placeatGatesheadandSouth Tyneside Coroners Court, heard that North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) contacted Northumbria Police and made clear what had happnened and that they would need assitance to gain entry into Mr Quinn’s home.
But the hearing was told that the message was misinterpreted and an officer made the decision to delay attendence under the mistaken belief that the ambulance crews would make further contact if police were required to attend.
An ambulance arrived soon after and Mr Quinn’s partner and sister were contacted by a neighbour.
Paramedics did not force entry to the property themselves as it was considered unsafe to do so and because of a mistaken belief that they were legally prohibited from entering. Ambulance staff had no training about forcible entry.
The inquest heard evidence from Dr Peter Goode, consultant in accident and emergency medicine, who
concluded Mr Quinn’s injuries would have been surivivable with prompt assessment and treatment up to 7.45pm that evening – more than 40 minutes after the fall.
But at that time police had still not been dispatched to allow paramedics to gain access.
Mr Quinn’s partner and sister arrived and tried to gain entry using a key but it snapped due to his own key being in the lock on the other side.
Police officers did not arrive until 7.56pm – 20 minutes after the incident was sent to the control room.
Emergency services gained entry just after 8pm but by this time Mr Quinn’s injuries had become fatal and he later died in hospital.
Coroner Terence Carney said: “The services that were in place may have worked on other occasions. But they were fatally flawed.
“I am told that the police and ambulance service have not been able to find any documentation about ar- rangements between them (governing forcible entry to property).
“The informality of the arrangement between police and ambulance service is astounding in the modern age.
“The fact that co-operation involved a decision not to train staff in forcible entry, and to discourage them from carrying out forcible entry, underlines an essential need to ensure that the system was robust, and that it was followed, to provide an obvious solution to an obvious need.”
The pathologist confirmed Mr Quinn’s caused of death was exsanguination, a severe loss of blood.
Mr Carney concluded the inquest with a narrative conclusion, saying: “Due to a failure to send an ambulance earlier and a failure by police to respond promptly to a request for attendance, there was a time critical delay in the delivery of essential medical care, and Mr Quinn died from otherwise potentially survivable injuries inadvertently sustained in a fall.”