My son was robbed of his life after 999 cut.. just a few minutes could have saved him
Distraught mum’s ambulance campaign
How soul-destroying for a medic knowing they won’t be able to save the person NAOMI REES-ISSITT ON PRESSURE FACING AMBULANCE MEDICS
A MUM says her son was robbed of his life when an ambulance took too long to reach him following the closure of a nearby depot.
Medics got to Jamie Rees-Issitt, 18, an agonising 17 minutes after he collapsed.
The response times for category 1 calls are that half should be reached in seven minutes with 90 per cent reached in 15 minutes.
Mum Naomi is campaigning to bring more ambulances back to her area – the depot was closed just three months before Jamie died, in early January.
Jamie had just turned 18 and had been celebrating New Year’s Eve and watching fireworks at a friend’s home when he suddenly “felt funny”.
He collapsed at 2:20am. His friend’s mother immediately rang 999 and was told an ambulance was on its way.
But as he lived in Rugby, Warks, which had its ambulance station closed in September, one was dispatched from Coventry, 15 minutes away.
Heartbroken Naomi, 42, said: “Had the ambulance arrived at Jamie even up to 10 minutes, we’ve been told there was a very good chance that Jamie could have survived.”
Fisherman Jamie was taken to Coventry Hospital, where his family had four days with him before he died.
Charity manager Naomi said: “Jamie’s best friend did such good CPR on him but even though there was some brain function on the night we got to hospital, we knew the chances we would get to keep him were slim.
We lost him on January
5. That did enable Jamie to be an organ donor, which was the only positive we could take.”
She added: “He was a fit 18-year-old. He didn’t smoke or drink.
“He was training to be a plumber. He has been robbed of his life.”
The family have been told the ambulance station and A&E were closed in Rugby as funding was put to better use in Coventry, where medics could reach 6,000 more patients within target times. But Naomi said: “That’s no good for the people of Rugby. I can’t imagine how soul-destroying that must be for a medic, knowing that they won’t be able to save the person they are heading to.”
Tests found no disease in Jamie’s heart so the cause of death was put down as sudden arrhythmic death syndrome.
Naomi, her husband Jeremy Issitt, 46, Jamie’s dad Gavin, also 46, and Jamie’s brother Callum, 22, are waiting for a Patient Safety Incident investigation into failures from the night he died.
Naomi says West Midlands Ambulance Trust has apologised in writing.
West Midlands Ambulance Service said: “Closing seldom-used ambulance stations has resulted in us being able to put more ambulances on the road to help us save lives; something buildings don’t help with.
“Long hospital handovers delays impact our ability to get to patients quickly, which is why all NHS partners
are working together to reduce them.”