The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Man left paraplegic after ambulance service mistake
AMBULANCE BLUNDERS have contributed to an elderly Fifer spending his remaining days as a paraplegic.
David Morrison’s wife Elizabeth said all the plans they had made for their future have disappeared.
“Now it is not existence,” she said.
After a Saturday evening out, the former plater, 70, took a tumble backwards down the stairs at his Kirkcaldy home.
Ambulance staff didn’t immediately immobilise his neck in a brace, nor did they place him on a stretcher to rush him to hospital.
And to compound the misery a member of the ambulance crew was said to have made a crass jibe about “drunks being the bane of his life”.
Once fit and active, Mr Morrison is now paralysed and needs round-the-clock care.
Mrs Morrison’s belief the actions of the ambulance staff contributed to her husband’s plight was upheld by the Scottish Ombudsman, Jim Martin.
He also raised concerns about the way the service had investigated the couple’s complaints.
He said its response had been “entirely inadequate and not proportionate to the seriousness of the allegation”.
Independent advice given to the Ombudsman said the crew should have been alert to the fact the pensioner had suffered a “significant” fall.
Coupled with a decreased level of consciousness and apparent intoxication, the crew should have applied manual spinal
a
life,
it
is
just an immobilisation at the earliest opportunity.
“It was not, and so I upheld the complaint,” Mr Martin said.
He also found failings in the service’s investigation.
It was only near the end of his investigation that the service said a disciplinary hearing involving one of the members of staff involved — the other had left the service — had been held and action taken. He said he was concerned not all the information needed was provided when requested and was only produced at a very late stage.
He asked the service to formally apologise to the couple and to externally audit the complaints handling procedure.
A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “We have apologised to the family and addressed the concerns about standards of care and will comply fully with all of the recommendations in the report.”