Fire crew sent to treat man dying of heart attack
By: Helen Carter
The Guardian, July 30, 2002
A man aged 54 died of a heart attack yesterday after a fire crew was sent
to his home because no ambulance was available.
The
crew was unsuccessful in its attempts to resuscitate Andrew Clarkson, who
died shortly after 3am. An ambulance from the West Yorkshire Metropolitan
ambulance service arrived 25 minutes later - 45 minutes after the family
had dialled 999.
Mr
Clarkson was married with three children, and lived in Hemsworth, West
Yorkshire. Stuart Day, Mr Clarkson's nephew, said that the family were
distraught. "The main gripe that everyone has got is that the fire
engine arrived and not an ambulance.
"I
do not know what the response time should be - but when someone phones
with a suspected heart attack you would think the ambulance would arrive
immediately."
Mr
Clarkson's daughter Julie, 23, said: "It is terrible and we want to
complain - but we don't know at this stage which way to turn."
His
widow, Margaret, 47, said that if there had been an ambulance nearby, then
perhaps something could have been done to save him. The ambulance service
made a statement in which it offered its condolences to the family, and
apologised for the response that was "not within our normal high
levels of performance".
It
went on to say that it was investigating the incident, although when the
service was exceptionally busy, it was standard practice to ask
neighbouring ambulance services or other emergency services to assist.
"The
fire service are fully trained and qualified life savers, and have been
specifically trained to use defibrilla tors," the statement said.
"We would like to thank the crew for their assistance in this
instance."
A
West Yorkshire fire service spokesman said: "At the end of the day,
we are all in the business of saving lives."
He
said the crew had responded to a call for assistance and the crew did
"everything in their powers - but in this particular case it was a
sad outcome."
They
had received the call from the ambulance service at 2.58am. "We carry
defibrillators in the fire appliances - mainly for road accidents and
incidents like that. As to why the ambulance didn't arrive for 25 minutes
- I don't know."
It
was uncommon for fire crews to be called to assist, but it had happened
before.
David
Atkinson, of the West Yorkshire fire authority, was critical of the
decision to send a fire crew.
"Could
they have not used an ambulance from South Yorkshire as a fallback?"
he asked. "Even an emergency doctor would have been more appropriate
than a fire appliance. I don't know why there were no ambulances
available. Was there a major crisis overnight we've not heard about?"
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