HSE will not publish report on teen’s death

THE HSE will not publish details of a review by the National Ambulance Service following the death of a student in October 2010. An investigation was held four years later when an ambulance service whistleblower came forward.

The 17-year-old fell ill at a Limerick university accommodation complex and an emergency call was not immediately passed to an ambulance crew, it is understood. It is claimed that when a crew was sent they requested permission from the control centre (then in Limerick) to call to a Garda station to complete a statement on another issue.

Another emergency call was made, reporting the student’s condition had deteriorated, but by the time the crew arrived the boy had had a cardiac arrest. He was taken to the Mid Western Regional Hospital (now University Hospital Limerick) and was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.