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?

This was a horrible situation and a terrible thing to happen to your brother. However, believe it or not, the advice now given for everyone is that if you think you are having a heart attack you should not dial 999 but go to hospital by car/ taxi. This reflects the awful state of the ambulance service and A n E.

Ultimately the reason they didn't come is because there were other more needy people that needed the ambulances at that time . There are only a certain number and your brother was lower priority.
Sorry for your loss but I can't see what is to gain from draining a stretched system already

i would add to your excellent list - too many idiots and entitled twits thinking its their right to have ambulance transport to the hospital for ailments which are not emergencies or urgent. I read with horror the story upthread about the TTC group and everyone lauding the fraudulent use of the system to get a scan for ovulation. Selfish and stupid in the extreme! But sadly not uncommon.

The police were involved they could've easily knocked on at the address.

Sorry. We have been through similar. The investigation just lead to thee relevant people covering each other ,

i don't know what is higher priority than someone dying in the middle of the road but ok

I know you are grieving and will say this as nicely as I can. At the time the ambulance was called by his customer, your DB was feeling severe chest pains, was breathing and conscious. Emergency dispatch prioritise ambulances based on what they know. They didn’t know he was going to die.

I rang 999 after my 18 year old ASD/ADHD son had necked a bottle of vodka on a rare night out and collapsed with hypothermia. The ambulance service told me there was a 12 hour wait and asked could I drive him to hospital. He is 6 foot 2 and weighs 30kg more than me and was comatose so no. Hypothermia is supposed to be treated as life threatening. I put him in the recovery position and piled on duvets and blankets. Thinking either he would survive or die before help arrived. Thinking of knocking up elderly neighbours at 3am that I barely know out of desperation.

In the end lovely paramedics arrived within the hour and stayed until his body temp had risen to just over 35 degrees so he didn't have to be admitted. I was so shocked to answer the door to them when I didn't expect them to come for another 11 hours if at all they asked if they had the right address.

I shouldn't be surprised that emergency services responded.

Your DB deserved timely response. I am so sorry for your loss. Lack of timely response can lead to complex grieving and endless questioning. I feel for your DB, his family and his passenger who tried to save him.

Let's hope that the new government ends this shit show that leads to so much avoidable trauma.

I'm so sorry for your loss. There should be an inquest, should there not? Or is that area dependant.