Please hurry or I’ll be dead
Tragic final call of 94-year-old grandfather to 999 operator after ambulance failed to arrive
A GRANDFATHER begged an ambulance call handler ‘please tell them to hurry up or i shall be dead’ after dialling 999 for the third time.
Otherwise the best bet would be to ‘send me the undertaker’, Kenneth shadbolt told the operator.
but it took four more hours for an ambulance to reach the 94-year- old’s home, by which time he had lost consciousness. He was rushed to hospital but died that day.
yesterday his family shared a harrowing transcript of his three 999 calls.
They spoke out as a safety watchdog demanded an ‘ immediate’ response to stop patients dying unnecessarily.
On the morning of mr shadbolt’s calls, more than half of ambulances in his area faced delays of more than an hour, according to figures seen by the BBC.
since losing Claudine, his wife in 2016, mr shadbolt had lived independently in the Cotswolds market town of Chipping Campden. but just before 3am on march 24 this year, the retired carpenter fell, hitting a wardrobe before collapsing on the floor. Unable to get up and in pain, he dialled 999, with the operator saying help is ‘being arranged’.
According to internal call logs, he was a category two emergency, meaning paramedics should arrive in 18 minutes.
He then spoke to one of his sons who offered to drive up from the other side of the country, only for his father to say the ambulance was arranged. later he called a neighbour but couldn’t raise them.
Mr Shadbolt rang 999 again just before 3.15am, saying he couldn’t move his leg. The call handler said the service was ‘extremely busy’.
According to the log, ambulances were queuing outside hospitals, with patients waiting for more than eight hours.
Mr Shadbolt called a third time at 4.12am saying his ‘breathing is going’ and is worried that ‘i’m going to fade away’. Assured that ambulance crews had ‘not forgotten about you’, mr shadbolt retorted: ‘Can you please tell them to hurry up or i shall be dead. send me the undertaker, that would be the best bet.’
it was not until 8.10am that an ambulance arrived and took him to Gloucestershire royal Hospital. He died at 2.20pm from a bleed on the brain.
His son Jerry shadbolt, 66, said: ‘Had he been seen more quickly he would still be here today.’ south Western ambulance service NHS Foundation Trust said delays its crews faced in handing over patients were ‘unacceptable’.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust said it was facing ‘unrelenting demand’.
■ Have you or someone you know suffered as a result of ambulance delays this year? if so, send an email to: ambulances@dailymail.co.uk.