WOMAN FALLS OUT OF AMBULANCE
Expat witness said 'uncaring' stretcher-bearers dismissed lady as 'mad'
A PATIENT fell out of a moving ambulance on the AP-7 motorway in Ondara this week, and a driver who witnessed the incident says he has been left 'highly traumatised' by the scene.
The woman, thought to be aged between 20 and 40, hit the tarmac at 110 kilometres per hour and suffered extremely serious injuries, according to German expat Michael Kaworsky.
“I saw the back doors of the ambulance open,” says Michael, who lives in Moraira and was heading to Daimús (La Safor) holiday park for Easter weekend.
“I was about 500 metres away and I saw a bundle fall out, which I thought was a blanket, but no, it was a woman.
“I was nearly on top of her by the time I managed to brake. She was totally covered in blood, completely destroyed. She was still alive, but breathing with great difficulty.”
Michael blocked the lane with his car to protect her and flashed the ambulance repeatedly to let them know they had lost a patient.
“When they came with a stretcher, I told them they'd have to call a doctor and the police, but they just ignored me; they shoved her into the ambulance really roughly and left.
“According to the ambulance driver and his companion, 'it was her own fault' because 'she's mad'.”
It turned out the patient had mental health problems and was supposed to have been accompanied in the back.
“I overtook them a bit later, waited at the tolls in Oliva, but they just carried on driving towards Valencia,” Michael said.
He had managed to take a photograph of the ambulance and went to report the matter to the Guardia Civil in Gandia, but they had shut for the bank holiday.
Michael went to the National Police, who said it was 'not their department' and he would have to go to a Guardia Civil station in the province of Alicante, as the accident happened in Ondara.
Finally, Michael reported it to a duty judge in Dénia.
But his Easter holidays were spoilt as he was too distressed to enjoy his family trip to Daimús.
“I'm afraid the woman may not have survived. Her injuries were really bad,” he said.
Regional health authorities have launched an inquiry, but the ambulance staff maintain the young woman was strapped to a stretcher and had a paramedic with her on the journey.