More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A Leysdown widow claims a catalogue of errors by an ambulance crew robbed her of the chance to be with her dying husband in his final hours.
Now she and her daughter are seeking an apology from the South East Coast Ambulance Service and calling for the trust to discipline or sack the crew.
Pauline Brooks, 67, was living in Mustards Road, Bay View, when her husband Ray, 66, collapsed with chest pains on the morning of December 22, 2014.
Mrs Brooks said:
Mrs Brooks and her daughter Tammy Brooks, 39, claim they have been fobbed off for two years and have now called in MP Gordon Henderson.
He has sent a researcher to see the pair at home in Highfield Road, Halfway.
Mrs Brooks said: “We are not after any money. But we don’t want this to happen to anyone else. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. They broke so many protocols that night.”
Miss Brooks said: “According to the log they said they stretchered my dad into the ambulance. But they didn’t.
“They lifted him up from behind and frog-marched him 100ft to the ambulance in his jeans and T-shirt like a puppet, kicking his legs in front of him. What they did was captured on the CCTV security camera at my mum’s home.”
Mrs Brooks said: “Once my husband was in the ambulance the crew – a support worker and an ambulance technician – had to sit and wait until another paramedic arrived with a new defibrillator as the one in the ambulance was broken.
"We believe my husband might have survived if he had been taken to hospital sooner.
“The crew wouldn’t let me ride with him. I knocked on the door three times to ask what was happening and three times they refused to let me talk to him.
"I got to hospital at 7am and couldn’t see him until I was told he had died at 9.43am. I think he may have died outside in the ambulance.
“I believe there has been a cover-up. That first crew should have been disciplined or sacked. Instead, I was told they were put on a lifting course.”
Miss Brooks said: “My dad didn’t deserve to die like that. He was known for always trying to help people. He worked hard all his life before moving to Sheppey in 2010. He loved it here.
“He was looking forward to spending his retirement here.”
Mr Brooks woke at 4am complaining of heartburn. He later collapsed into his wife’s arms complaining he couldn’t feel his leg. She phoned 999.
Mrs Brooks said: “Control called back to say the crew had gone to the wrong house. By this time my husband was sweating and had gone ice cold.
"When they finally got him in the ambulance they could not send his ECG notes to the hospital because they said they were in a mobile phone black-spot.”
During the past two years they have had meetings with the ambulance trust and consultants at the hospital and pursued a complaint through the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
They have also written to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. They claim they have spent up to £7,000 of their savings on legal fees. Both PALS and the ombudsman backed the trust.
The ombudsman said: “We believe the trust carried out its duties appropriately and in line with established good practice and relevant guidance. We do not uphold the complaint as there is no evidence of failings.”
Mrs Brooks said: “I miss my husband more than words can say. I met him when I was 16 and we married in 1969. We had been looking forward to a really great Christmas. I didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye.”
A South East Coast Ambulance Service trust spokesman said: “We are very sorry Mr Brooks’ family are unhappy with the service they received and understand their distress since his death.
“We have fully engaged with them and thoroughly investigated their concerns. As Mrs Brooks was unhappy with the outcome, she asked the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to review the complaint.
“The ombudsman’s final report concluded it would not uphold the complaint. We believe we have done all we can to resolve Mrs Brooks’ concerns.”
The complaint was originally investigated as a serious incident and reported to NHS Swale Clinical Commissioning Group, which pays for and monitors the service. It approved the completed investigation.
The ombudsman is the final stage of the NHS complaints procedure.
A claim against the trust would need a formal letter of complaint to the NHS Litigation Authority.
The trust spokesman said: “With regards to Mr Brooks walking to the ambulance, the ombudsman’s report said that our response, in which we apologised that he had not been taken to the ambulance in a carry chair, was ‘unnecessarily critical’ of the crew as they believed they acted appropriately in the circumstances.”
He added that the trust had already apologised to the family for any distress caused.
