The family of Paul Dawson, a man who died after waiting 47 minutes for an ambulance after suffering a heart attack, has criticized the ambulance service response time. Dawson’s wife called 999 four times before paramedics finally arrived, by which time he was in cardiac arrest. Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) has opened a serious incident investigation into the incident. NHS England has set a target response time of 18 minutes for patients experiencing a heart attack and seven minutes for those in cardiac arrest.
Dawson’s daughter, Samantha Dawson, said that her father could have still been alive if the ambulance had arrived quicker. She felt the length of time her father had to wait was excruciating, and she believes that her father’s death could have been avoided if paramedics had been quicker in their response. Dawson’s wife, Rita, found him collapsed in their home’s hallway with chest pains after hearing him cry out. She first called 999 at 01:09 BST, and he was taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary but was pronounced dead at the hospital later that morning.
Ms Dawson, who lives in Vancouver, has put in a formal complaint with YAS over its response and, had believed her father’s initial 999 call should have been logged as a category one call to immediately deal with patients facing a life-threatening situation. Instead, the call was categorized as an emergency.
A spokesperson for YAS stated that their thoughts were with Dawson’s family. “We are aware of the concerns raised by Paul’s family about the ambulance response, and our patient relations team is liaising directly with them about specific details relating to this,” the spokesperson said
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