Grieving family query ambo route

The family of Kawerau man Gavin Sadlier want answers from St John after he died in an ambulance and was driven to a funeral home instead of to hospital to his waiting partner.

Sadlier’s partner of 36 years, Sandy Hohepa, said he was alive when loaded into an ambulance after suffering a suspected heart attack at work in Kawerau on June 20.

Hohepa was told she would need to travel in the first ambulance and her 53-year-old partner would travel behind in a second ambulance.

After arriving at hospital and trying to find where her partner was, she was eventually told by a hospital staff member he had died and his body had been taken straight to Willetts Funeral Services in the ambulance.

Hohepa said the family were able to view Sadlier’s body for only about 15 minutes at the funeral home about four hours later.

There was a delay in the viewing, she said, because they had to wait for police supervision and were told this was standard practice when a coroner orders an autopsy.

The autopsy was performed in Hamilton and Sadlier’s body released to the family the following night.

Steven Butler of Willetts said it was not unusual for bodies to be taken straight to funeral homes if a person died in an ambulance.

However, he said he understood the Sadlier family’s point of view because this had not been clearly communicated to them.

St John told the Rotorua Daily Post an inquiry was being completed and St John had already apologised to the family for a delay in responding.