After suffering a deadly heart attack, a youngster died when an ambulance arrived “three minutes too late”.

An ambulance chief alleges that the 18-year-old was one of scores of patients in the West Midlands who would have lived if crews had not been held up for hours at hospitals.

Before visiting the family of the youngster who tragically died, Mark Docherty, Executive Director of Nursing and Commissioning for West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS), made the shocking remark.

“We were three minutes too late to save him,” he said.

According to Birmingham Live, the young man, whose identity has not been released, suffered a heart attack while out with pals.

Mr Docherty believes that if paramedics had arrived sooner, he would have had a better chance.

“I am visiting his family shortly. The notes about the case would make you cry,” he said, his voice catching. “He knew he was in trouble.”

“He told his friends ‘I’ve got a funny feeling’ and laid down on the ground, he knew that something was going to happen. And we just didn’t get there on time”, Mr Docherty said.

“Threat to life” category 1 Ideally, 999 calls should be answered within seven minutes, with a range of up to 15 minutes.

Mr Docherty added: “A fit 18-year-old would probably stand a very, very good chance of survival, but we were there three minutes too late, which in cardiac arrest makes a massive difference.

“I know the family will ask what we are doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and the truth is I don’t know what else we can do.”

It was a devastating reminder of the consequences of having too many ambulance crews ‘stacked up’ outside overburdened hospitals, waiting to discharge patients and go back on the road. Despite assurances of immediate action, the West Midlands Ambulance Service claims the delays are still exceedingly long and persistent.

Thousands of ambulance hours are lost each week as vehicles are regularly stopped for longer than the 30 minutes required for a safe patient handover, with delays often lasting hours. According to reports, the delays are having a negative influence on response times.

Mr Docherty claims that his data analysis work found 72 local residents who died as a result of ambulance response delays over the course of a year. The problem was brought up at a WMAS Board meeting earlier this week.

“I want to say a big sorry, really sorry to the patients and also some of their families about our response (times) currently because it’s not adequate, it’s atrocious that we are in this current position,” emergency services operations delivery director Nathan Hudson said at the conference.

Mr Docherty said the situation was putting a strain on ambulance control workers and paramedics, who were seeing and hearing the effects of delays firsthand. Patients and their families had to call back, frequently multiple times, to track down ambulances.

Control room personnel would occasionally hear patients voice their final words as they deteriorated while waiting for aid.

“It is very distressing to listen to a call from a patient who, by the time we reach them, is dead. We hear the last words they utter.”

Hospital handover times have been a source of concern for several months, yet despite hospital efforts, the issue has not improved.

Image Credit: Getty

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