18-year-old Jamie Rees died on New Year’s Day after waiting 17 minutes for ambulance services to reach him.
Rees suffered a cardiac arrest shortly after returning home from watching fireworks displays with friends.
Following the first 999 call, it is acknowledged in the service report that it took ambulance crews 17 minutes and 33 seconds to get to Rees. West Midland Ambulance Service said that ambulances based in the town were tending to other emergencies due to the five other calls received in the hour prior to the call for Rees.
His mother, Ms Rees-Issitt said,
“He didn’t deserve for this to happen.”
“I can’t imagine how soul-destroying it is for that ambulance crew who reached Jamie after 17 minutes, knowing they were never going to save him,” Ms Rees-Issitt added.
Prior to the arrival of ambulance services, West Midland police officers had been at the family home and used a defibrillator three times on Rees.
While an initial service report has been provided to the family, Ms Rees-Issitt is calling for action and has launched a campaign for the installation of more defibrillators around the local town. A fundraising page has been set up, and profits will be put toward the purchase of a defibrillator in Jamie’s memory.
This report follows on from a previous article published by AFIPN relating to serious concerns from UK officials and Health authorities over the crisis facing the health care system about the failings in its emergency responses.
Figures out of the UK showed that 999 callers with potentially life-threatening conditions across the country were being forced to wait up to an hour for an ambulance when according to NHS targets it should take ambulances just over 8 minutes on average to reach urgent life-threatening cases.
Earlier this month Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan BHU Associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation (BHF) acknowledged dangerously long ambulance response times and harmful delays to treatment in overcrowded A&E departments, saying,
“We are seriously concerned that this crisis is now worse than ever with no sign of improving, despite health workers doing all they can for every patient.”
