A seriously ill patient in the United Kingdom called an ambulance with shortness of breath and died at home after waiting for more than 8 hours

According to the British "Metro News" reported on November 2, a seriously ill patient in the United Kingdom waited for 8 hours before the ambulance arrived, and finally died at home.

When he found he was unable to walk and developed shortness of breath, Shaun Mansell's neighbor called the 999 emergency number. The call was made at 7:23 p.m. on July 5, but by the time ambulance crew arrived at 3:37 a.m. the next day, he was dead. The 50-year-old suffered from gastrointestinal bleeding and was supposed to be treated within two hours.

At a time when the UK was approaching the peak of the summer wave of COVID-19, the West Midland Ambulance Service (WMAS) was struggling to meet the needs of patients.

An investigation into Mansell's death found that the ambulance service didn't even have enough first responders to check on waiting patients, meaning caregivers who were already off work at the time had to come to the aid of the control room staff. Delays in hospital handovers across the region meant the agency actually reduced the number of ambulances by 40 throughout the day.

Assistant coroner Sarah Murphy found that there was a "serious nursing error" in the incident, but she could not conclude that it was negligent because there was no way to know whether the patient would have survived if the response had not been so slow.

Jason Wiles, the WMAS's chief caregiver for emergency care, told the commission of inquiry that on the day of the incident, the number of 999 emergency calls was 3.5 percent higher than expected, equating to about 150 additional calls across the region. According to the information provided, Mansell was classified as a "category III" case, meaning there was no immediate life-threatening situation, and he was one of hundreds of patients waiting for an ambulance on July 5.

"When we get so many calls, there simply aren't enough ambulances, so the third type of call has to be shelved," Wiles said. First and second class calls will take precedence over third class. We were very busy that day, and on July 5, we had nearly 300 cases. ”

"There was also a delay in handing over the patient to the hospital, and an off-duty paramedic came to support the staff of the WMAS control centre and was asked to examine Mansell." Wiles told the board of inquiry that the paramedic had no formal training on the relevant, that the paramedics failed to contact Mansell's neighbor on their first attempt, and mistakenly called again three hours later instead of the standard 10 minutes. But Wiles said that even if it was called in 10 minutes, there simply wasn't enough staff to do it.

Assistant coroner Murphy recorded the conclusion that it was natural death. Mansel's daughter, Emily Mansel, said her family had no objection to the findings. "We know that the National Health Service (NHS) is currently under tremendous pressure," she said. (Edit: sdy)