A 67-year-old woman named Janet Lyon from Leicestershire died after attempting to reach her GP surgery three hours after calling for an ambulance, which never arrived. Ms. Lyon had called for an ambulance on December 27, 2021, after struggling to breathe. However, a 999 call handler informed her that she had an urgent but not life-threatening condition and told her to visit a walk-in centre or GP instead. Ms. Lyon’s daughter, Katie Keating, put a complaint to East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS), who apologized but deemed the call to have been handled appropriately.
Ms. Keating believes that her mother’s death was preventable and has reported that her mother died due to pneumonia. She states that her mother’s lungs had filled with fluid, causing her to pass out from the inability to breathe. Ms. Lyon had type 2 diabetes and asthma, and her daughter claims that her mother was unable to contact a GP and that she died with her phone in her hand.
EMAS explained in a letter addressed to the family that the ambulance could not be dispatched since the call was designated as category 3. The service noted in the same letter that it experienced high demand for emergency responses at the time of the call. The ambulance advised Ms. Lyon to go to a walk-in centre, an urgent care centre, or to see a GP and only call 999 if her symptoms were to worsen or change. The ambulance service apologized to the family for the inconvenience caused by its advice that an emergency ambulance would not attend and offered a sincere apology.
When Ms. Lyon failed to breathe, a second call was made, classified as category 1, and paramedics arrived in two minutes. Ms. Keating claims that had the call handler advised her mother to go to the A&E department, her brother would have taken her. She believes that medical intervention was necessary, Ms. Lyon was right to contact an ambulance since she required oxygen, and her mother was unable to receive any treatment
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