Man died 'after 999 staff did not send ambulance quickly enough when he collapsed in street'

Slow response: London Ambulance Service was criticised
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Ross Lydall @RossLydall4 January 2016

London Ambulance Service has been criticised by a coroner after failing to respond quickly enough to save the life of a man collapsed in the street.

The case, which can be revealed for the first time today, was the second within months where 999 call handlers failed to realise a patient was unconscious and in immediate danger and took too long to send an ambulance.

David Sweeney, 28, suffered a cardiac arrest minutes before paramedics finally arrived on the scene — an hour and 40 minutes after first being called — and died in hospital a week later.

His death, on April 25 last year, came three months after five-year-old Yusuf Abdismad died from meningitis when a LAS 999 operator believed he was asleep at a time he was probably unconscious. St Pancras coroner Mary Hassell was so alarmed by both cases that she issued LAS with two prevention of future death reports, ordering immediate improvements to prevent further tragedies.

In her most recent report, obtained by the Standard via a freedom of information request, she said: “I am extremely concerned a theme may be emerging in the handling by LAS of calls regarding unconscious patients.”

Mr Sweeney had been drinking and was found in West Hampstead lying on the ground vomiting by a passer-by who called 999 at 4.47pm on April 18. The caller said Mr Sweeney had been unconscious but replied “yes” when asked by the LAS dispatcher whether he was a “little bit awake”.

This meant the call was categorised as being to someone who was sick rather than unconscious, which would have resulted in an ambulance arriving within eight minutes. The ambulance only turned up when a further call to LAS was made by police who came upon Mr Sweeney still lying in the street.

An emergency doctor told Mr Sweeney’s inquest in August that he “probably would have survived” the cardiac arrest if he had been in hospital at the time.

Ms Hassell recorded that his death was caused by hypoxic brain injury — a lack of oxygen to the brain — and acute alcohol toxicity. She said: “An opportunity for earlier medical intervention — which might have saved him on this occasion — was lost when a call to the ambulance service was not categorised as a priority.”

LAS chief executive Dr Fionna Moore admitted assessing the level of consciousness by phone was “challenging” and an area where more errors are likely to be made.

She said a new system was being trialled after international advisers spent time in the LAS control room, with both deaths being used as “case studies” to ensure lessons were learned.

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