Tragedy as man dies of cardiac arrest during nine-hour wait for ambulance
A man tragically passed away following a cardiac arrest, during an agonising nine-hour wait for medical assistance. David Bye, from Hill Farm Park, Pembroke Dock, sadly died in the early hours of Monday, July 1.
His wife, Pauline Bye, has labelled the lengthy wait for an ambulance as "unforgivable". The Welsh Ambulance Service said that on the morning Mr Bye passed away, ambulances spent over 250 hours outside hospitals across the Hywel Dda University Health Board region, which includes Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion, waiting to transfer patients.
Recalling the day her husband died, Mrs Bye told WalesOnline: "Nine hours after falling off the bed and us calling for an ambulance someone finally came, but it was too late and David died. David had a long history of heart disease and lymphoedema following a triple bypass and aortic valve replacement four years ago and had regular periods as an inpatient at Withybush Hospital."
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"I became very worried about David's condition so I rang 999 at 6pm for an ambulance but they told me none were available. I rang again at midnight and again was told there were no ambulances and to try and make David as comfortable as possible and an ambulance would eventually be with us. At this point David was still talking to me but he had become very confused and I was concerned at that point that this could be a key sign of a cardiac arrest."
"I had made him as comfortable as possible with bedding and cushions. He complained of back pain but no other injuries and his breathing was okay, although he was still very clearly confused and his responses to me were very delayed. I couldn't lift him as he weighed 17 stone and there were no neighbours to help me."
"He slowly deteriorated, became more sleepy and he stopped talking to me, by which time I rang ambulance control again. By that time it was 3.15am and the answer was the same regarding no ambulances being available. But while I was talking to the ambulance control David had a cardiac arrest. Then it all kicked off. Immediately the controller alerted the rapid response who got to us within minutes. They then took over cardiac massage from me and they were followed by more rapid responders and two fire engines and an ambulance."
Mrs Bye said she "couldn't fault" the emergency services who tried to help her husband, but she felt she had to speak about what happened. "I'm very angry about it," she said. "I don't like to make a fuss and I don't wish to be difficult, but this has been a horrible experience and a huge shock."
"We know we live in a rural location and understand ambulances might take a little longer. I might have been able to understand a couple of hours, but to take nine hours just seems unforgivable to me - especially when as soon as he began to die they arrived very quickly."
Liam Williams, executive director of quality and nursing at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said poor ambulance response time is a symptom of a much larger issue including handover delays at accident and emergency departments across the country. According to the Welsh Ambulance Service's latest available data more than 20,000 hours were lost for ambulances waiting outside accident and emergency departments in Wales in July, which is up from 19,400 in June.
In the four years prior to the pandemic the median response time to red calls, which is the highest alert call the ambulance service can receive, ranged between four minutes and 30 seconds and six minutes. But in July the average response time to immediately life-threatening red calls was over eight minutes, although that was 15 seconds faster than the same figure in June.
Mr Williams said: "Regrettably, poor ambulance response times are well documented and unfortunately a symptom of much broader system-wide pressures, including hospital handover delays, which impact our ability to reach patients quickly. On June 30 and July 1 our ambulances spent over 250 hours outside hospitals across the Hywel Dda University Health Board region waiting to transfer the care of patients to hospital colleagues, which significantly reduces the number of ambulances able to respond to patients in the community."
Stories of people dying while waiting for ambulances have become more common. Last month Josephine Sheehan told of how her partner of 18 years Jason died aged 51 on May 24 after going into a cardiac arrest. He had waited for more than four hours for an ambulance at their home in Hengoed, Caerphilly borough. You can read her story here.
Mr Williams added: "On behalf of everyone at the Welsh Ambulance Service I would like to extend my condolences to the family of Mr Bye on their sad loss. This is not the standard of service we want to provide and we recognise that this is not what the public rightly expects of us. As a result we continue to work with health board colleagues to find local solutions to the challenges faced and we are also looking at evolving our current service model further."
"As part of this we will increase the involvement of paramedics and nurses in our clinical contact centres when patients call to help ensure that patients like Mr Bye get help quicker. I would like to invite a representative of Mr Bye to contact the trust's Putting Things Right team so we can investigate the incident fully and offer a comprehensive response to them. I would once again like to extend condolences on behalf of the trust to Mr Bye's family at this very difficult time."
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