With better care they might have survived
TWO victims of the Manchester Arena attack could have survived with better treatment, the report found.
Saffie-Rose Roussos, eight, and J ohn Atkinson, 28, both died on the night of the bombing.
But Sir John Saunders, the retired judge leading the inquiry, said the response of the emergency services was 'far below t he standard it should have been'.
The youngest victim, Saffie, was standing just five yards away from Salman Abedi when he detonated his device.
Her mother and older sister were also badly injured, but for up to 15 minutes after the blast she was still able to talk as poster
'I'm going to die, aren't I?
seller Paul Reid did what he could to comfort her.
After giving up waiting for paramedics, Mr Reid helped two police officers carry the girl outside on an advertising hoarding, before one flagged down an ambulance.
It took 52 minutes to get her to Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, where she went into cardiac arrest because of how much blood she had lost.
Lawyers representing North West Ambulance Service told the hearing the ' brutal reality' was that the first paramedics on the scene had a duty to treat those with the best chance of survival.
But Sir John said he could not ' exclude the remote possibility that Saffie-Rose Roussos would have survived' with immediate medical treatment. Speaking after the evidence, Saffie's father Andrew said hearing details of her agonising last minutes t.ad made him 'very angry'.
The inquiry also heard of Mr Atkinson's final moments as he lay bleeding from horrific injuries, begging for help and crying: ' I'm going to die, aren't I?'
First to his side was Ron Blake, who was at the arena to pick up his daughter. He dialled 999 and, using a belt as a tourniquet on the care worker's leg, assured him help was coming. But Mr Atkin son lay where he had fallen for 47 minutes. He was seen by a paramedic only after police at the scene lost patience and took him out on a makeshift stretcher.
Even then he was not taken to hospital and at 11.47pm, an hour and 16 minutes after the blast, he went into cardiac arrest.
Lawyers for North West Ambulance Service told the inquiry there were ' simply not enough paramedics' at the scene.
Sir John said had Mr Atkinson 'received the treatment and care he should have, it is likely he would have survived'. Mr Atkinson's family said he had been ' totally failed at every stage'.