brother died in middle of road waiting for ambulance

[hangingonfordearlife1]

2 weeks ago my brother was driving taxi when he experienced chest pains. his customer called 999. 1hour and 30 minutes later he went into cardiac arrest and customer started cpr on floor in road. when ambulance turned up 15 minutes later he was still in cardiac arrest. tried 5 times to revive him and worked on him. arrived at hospital 45 minutes later and pronounced deceased.

the ambulance took 1hour and 45 minutes to arrive for a suspected heart attack and then a further 45 minutes to get him to hospital

he's gone and nothing we can do about that but legally where do we stand about asking for an investigation. Not for compensation but actual reasons so we can understand what happened. why did they take so long?

Also we didn't find out until 1 day later after calling round the hospitals to see if he had been admitted as hadn't heard from him. his address was clear on his driving license. why didn't they inform us?

There is, just call them and they will attach an ambulance liaison to look into everything for you.

I am so sorry for your loss, OP.

We lost my beloved baby brother two years ago in what seems to have been a medically induced sporting accident. It happened in another country and there was no post mortem. The lack of knowledge about what happened has made grieving even harder.

I think it is objectively important that you raise awareness of this appalling situation. I also hope that doing so will help you just a little bit at this awful time. Very best wishes to you and your family.

So sorry for your loss.

I’d contact your MP? They can advocate with the NH for you.

So sorry for your loss.
If you're not looking for compensation, maybe just write to the media? They'll get some answers for you when they drag them through the mud.

Yes

OP, I am so sorry for your loss.

TY, why assume that the ambulance service would be dragged through the mud? The ambulance service is stretched past breaking because they arrive at hospitals and there are no beds, and the ill person has to remain in the ambulance until they can be admitted. So many vehicles are makeshift one person wards half the time and that’s the fault of a broken system.

Of course, there may be an error in OP’s case and this should be investigated but it may simply be an overwhelmed system.

I’m sorry for your loss OP. I made a complaint to the ambulance service (you’ll find a form to complete online) when they refused to send one for my critically ill mother earlier this year, and received a generic response denying they’d done anything wrong - despite the hospital nurses and doctors telling us it should have been sent.

This week my aunt had a suspected stroke and it took 9.5 hours for the ambulance to get there.

You can complain but it’s highly unlikely they’ll take any responsibility over what happened. Our NHS is on its knees and most people don’t realise how bad it is until something like this happens. It makes me so angry.

This is shocking, so sorry for your loss.

We had a terrible time in A&E recently and the nurses told us and others to please make official complaints, because they were absolutely overrun and understaffed. They said the only way things will change is if enough patients complain.

Sorry for your loss and it’s awful your brother never got the treatment he needed.
you must feel so let down x

So sorry.

I'm so sorry for your loss, of course you want, and deserve answers.

It's important you find out, to understand how the call was categorised and prioritised so that if, and I say if, mistakes were made then they don't happen again.

Further, and crazy as this might sound, 45 minutes to get to hospital might not actually have been bad. Paramedics are highly qualified and can do more in the open space than in the back of a moving ambulance. But you need the specific answers.

I hope you find the right avenue to get things answered.

@hangingonfordearlife1 - as others have said you need to find out who your local ambulance trust is and make a complaint and ask for an explanation.

If you happen to live in the East of England (Beds., Cambs., Essex, Herts., Norfolk or Suffolk) you need this one: Complaints | EEAST

Otherwise you will have to find out who your local ambulance trust is.

Trying to go through PALS would be a waste of time

Hugs! This is horrendous! Something needs to change with the NHS now!

I'm so sorry for your loss. It is shocking that he had to wait so long after an ambulance was called for chest pain, and I can understand your anger, even though it was no doubt not the fault of the ambulance staff. It's also shocking that you weren't called until the following day, that's unforgiveable. I can't offer any help as I'm not in the UK, just wanted to send my condolences.

It's very tempting to wait until more is known before complaining but that can drag on forever. Start the process as soon as you feel able.

I think you can definitely ask questions.

seems very likely that the lack of everything in the nhs is to blame, not the poor staff that are probably doing their best

it’s really hard when you first find out how stretched our paramedics are .

not having had a major injury in our family we didn’t know, and when the children had broken bones ect , we drove and it always seemed quicker to make the two mile’s journey in the car then ring an ambulance, so when people mentioned it we never really took the level of the problem on board.

then dh had someone have a fit on his bus . He had very little first aid training, but got her into an appropriate position, and rang an ambulance while she was fitting. Said that it would be at least three hours away . She came round a few times to talk to him , but fitted twice more in the next hour, the ambulance service moved her up to a higher priority and said would be approximately 30 minutes. She fitted a fourth time before it arrived, nearly two hours after the rang , and didn’t wake up again. Absolutely devastating to be that helpless for everyone involved.

I am so sorry for your loss 💐

If this was a London Taxi, please contact LTDA, I think they would have some means of support for your enquiry with the ambulance service.

I am sorry for your loss.

How do you know the exact timescales of everything? Is this something you are able to prove when you are making the complaint?

It's not austerity that caused this.
There're too many people in the country for the infrastructure on ground.
n addition there're many people with different values and the fact that there's access to free healthcare means they will abuse it.
I'm in a Whatsapp TTC group of women who've mostly arrived in the UK in the past year. Last week some suggested a false alarm trick to get an ambulance to attend and get a scan at the hospital as the way for them to get a scan during their fertile period to confirm ovulation or predict ovulation. No one pushed back or pointed out how this could deprive someone on the brink of death from getting much needed emergency medical attention, it was praised and she was thanked. I explained why this was morally wrong and was reprimanded by the admin for thinking my values are what others should imbibe, etc. This is the TTC arm of a huge "charity" helping women from another country/region settle in the UK. This country will be something else in 10yrs if care isn't taken. Ask Lebanon.

I am so sorry for your loss.

Ambulance delays are an area of medical negligence I think. You can find a medical negligence lawyer that will probably work for no win no fee depending on your case.

This might give your family some acknowledgment of what has gone wrong and mean there’s incentive for things to improve for the next family. It might also help with funeral expenses and and any costs associated with his death.

Personally I think governments don’t take notice of the people that are weaker and sicker or services that are stretched. It only really happens if there’s media attention or it impacts enough people or the right people. I would make a legal claim for this reason.

I hope you are going okay, this is an incredibly hard time. Be gentle on yourself & do reach out for grief counselling and support. Losing a brother in such a sudden and shocking way and without answers as to why his emergency wasn’t treated as such, would be very difficult.

That is a sad and harrowing story. I had no idea things were that bad. Your poor husband - I hope got counselling for the trauma.

I am so sorry for you and your family going through this.

I would do the following:
A) make a formal complaint to the NHS Ambulance Trust (SECAM, West Miss, London, SWAS etc). Ask to be informed of the reasons for the delay and the learning from this.
B) let the Coroner know there was a delay and you've made a complaint. Coroners are very busy and there's a chance the inquest will look at the medical evidence for cause of death and not appreciate the delay. Make it clear you are concerned it contributed to or caused your brothers death.

Good luck @hangingonfordearlife1 with this and so sorry again. Take care

I think this too, this is a medical negligence area.

OP I'm so, so sorry about this. I had a similar experience so please pm me if you need to offload any time. May your brother rest in peace. My thoughts with you and your family.

The system is broken, we need to fix it.