Arena bomb victim Saffie ‘could have been saved’
Distraught parents stunned by report
THE youngest victim of the Manchester Arena bombing might have survived if she had been given better first aid, according to reports.
Eight-year-old Saffie Roussos was one of 22 people who died when terrorist Salman Abedi, 22, detonated a bomb after an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017. An expert report commissioned by lawyers for the family found she lived for more than an hour after the blast and that chances to help her were missed. Saffie, from Leyland, Lancashire, asked a paramedic “Am I going to die?” as she was being taken to hospital, and passed away due to losing blood from her legs.
But no tourniquets or splints were applied to reduce the bleeding.
Previously, experts commissioned by the Manchester Arena Inquiry had found Saffie’s injuries were not survivable.
The new information has come to light because lawyers representing the Roussos family commissioned different experts to look into her death.
Saffie’s parents initially believed she was killed instantly in the explosion and say they drew comfort from thinking that she had not suffered.
But her dad Andrew said this week: “She could have been saved. How do we carry on living with this information?”
Saffie was the first person to be carried out of the foyer but there was no ambulance outside, and one had to be flagged down.
The report found the ambulance did not have all the necessary equipment on board.
The crew did not use tourniquets or splints on Saffie’s injuries and neither did the medical team at the hospital.
The Manchester Arena Inquiry yesterday began its phase of hearing evidence about the emergency response to the attack.