Posted on 10/10/2005 5:58:13 AM PDT by SittinYonder
Key points • Man with agonising spinal injury spends ten hours on hospital trolley. • Lone ambulance requested to move him was required to cover area. • Politicians denounce delays "absolutely unacceptable" and call for review.
Key quote "The ambulance men were fantastic. But they also told us there was only one ambulance crew on from about 7pm for the whole of Stirling. They said there were ambulances sitting there but no-one to drive them." - DIPIKA TWADDLE, WIFE OF VICTIM
Story in full A PROPERTY developer who suffered an agonising spinal injury was left lying on a hospital trolley for almost ten hours before being transferred to a specialist unit, because only one ambulance was covering the area that night.
Neil Twaddle, 42, injured himself after falling in the shower at home in Clackmannan last Wednesday.
His wife Dipika returned home from work at lunchtime to find her husband screaming with pain and shouting "I can't feel my legs", and called an ambulance.
The series of delays which followed have been denounced by politicians as "absolutely unacceptable", and led to calls for a review of Scottish Ambulance Service arrangements.
Mrs Twaddle, a financial advisor, telephoned Alloa Health Centre at 1:30pm. She was told an ambulance would arrive within two hours, but the couple did not reach the Stirling Royal Infirmary's accident and emergency department until nearly 6pm.
"Neil thought his back was broken and was terrified," said his wife. "That was just the start of a hellish night, which dragged on until nearly 5am the next morning because there wasn't an ambulance to take my husband to Edinburgh.
"He was left on a trolley in a corridor and given morphine to kill the pain. But it wasn't until 11:30pm that the doctor on duty designated Neil as an emergency case for transfer to the Western General in Edinburgh within the hour, where a registrar would be waiting and an MRI scan was to be done."
At 3am, Mr Twaddle was still lying in accident and emergency. When a nurse telephoned the ambulance service, she was told the ambulance due to take Mr Twaddle to Edinburgh was being "retasked" to take a child who had suffered burns for emergency treatment in Glasgow.
"The staff were fantastic and I cannot fault them in any way," said Mrs Twaddle. "They were busting their guts to get things done, with very little support. Eventually the staff told us there was only a single ambulance covering Stirling and that was causing the problem. We totally understand the child had priority and have no problem with that.
"The consultant who had seen my husband came back and said: 'What's he still doing here? There's a registrar waiting in Edinburgh. How many times do I have to tell them [ambulance service] he's to go?' He got on the phone and started shouting at the ambulance service."
The consultant was told Mr Twaddle was "on the list", but that 999 calls had to take priority, Mrs Twaddle said. "The ambulance men were fantastic. But they also told us there was only one ambulance crew on from about 7pm for the whole of Stirling. They said there were ambulances sitting there but no-one to drive them."
Mr Twaddle arrived at the Western General at 4:45am - 13 hours after the initial call for an ambulance - where he is being treated for a prolapsed disc.
The Scottish Ambulance Service confirmed there had only been one ambulance available in the Stirling area that night. A spokesman said: "There was only one ambulance because for certain week-nights that is deemed the appropriate level of cover between 2am and 8am.
"The ambulance service decides what cover is necessary by using a system which analyses the number of calls we get and deploying resources in relation to the demand that we get. On the night in question we were dealing with an unusually high proportion of hospital transfers."
Shona Robison MSP, the SNP's health spokeswoman, said: "I am very dubious about a risk assessment by the ambulance service, which says this is a safe way to provide ambulance cover for an area which has a population of around 86,000 people. It is absolutely unacceptable and dangerous that the people of Stirling are being left without effective cover.
"This should be a warning shot across the bows. It's only a matter of time before there is a major incident with tragic consequences. There must be a review."
A spokesman for Unison, the public sector union, said: "If ambulance cover falls too low in any area, not only does this increase the risk of unacceptable delays, but it also means increased stress and pressure on ambulance staff."
If you'd like to lay on a stretcher in pain for 10 hours, vote Hillary in 08!
When your healthcare is paid for through taxes, you get lousy treatment.
HilliaryCare Bump!
Socialized medicine has lowered quality of care all over the world. But, ya know, Hillarycare will fix all that ...
Of course, the frightening thing is that it probably won't matter whether Hillary wins or a Republican wins. Socialized medicine is on its way, whether we want it or not. Look at Bush's prescription drug plan: Unless we send them a clear message, the politicians will take control of healthcare, regardless of the R or the D after their name.
I'm worried it's not just the libs ... :-(
If the Hildebeast is elected, it will be at least 4 years of pain.
They'e not dumb, they're evil. They are about to unveil a sort of 'Contract with America', with universal healthcare as its centerpiece, followed closely by tax increases, and universal college education. I can't wait.
Bear in mind that it is the wealthy members of Congress that want socialized medicine. Kerry, Clinton, Kennedy will never use socialized medicine since they can afford their own private healthcare. They just want anyone making under $500,000 to stand in lines for inferior healthcare.
My hometown emergency room would do something like this. Only the delay would be caused by all the illegals and welfare cases using the emergency room as primary care for their kids runny noses and coughs.
To be fair, the UN says Scotland is the most violent country in Europe, maybe the ambulances were busy patching up after the 2000 stabbings per week?
Blame it on the "Booze & Blade" syndrome.
Nothing a quality government program can't cure!
That's OK, they're going to ban knives in the UK soon.
Boy, I'll bet the ambulance company is quaking in their boots: "Oh no! Not a review!"
Is this normal? I can sort of understand snafus in transferring from one hospital to another, but is a two hour response time (which actually stretched into 5-1/2 hours) normal for an ambulance?
WIFE: "Hello, I'm terribly sorry to bother, but I'm afraid my husband has fallen and injured his back. Normally I wouldn't call, but he says he can't feel his legs. I'm afraid we'll need an ambulance at No. 16 Cheshire Court."
AMBULANCE SERVICE: "Oh, that sounds rather serious, drat the luck. How about Wednesday?"
WIFE: "Is that the earliest you have?"
AMBULANCE SERVICE: "I'm afraid so, ma'am. I'll just put you down for Wednesday. Will someone be there to let us in?"
WIFE: "Well, what time on Wednesday?"
AMBULANCE SERVICE: "Could be any time between eight and six, ma'am."
And so forth.
I'm afraid so.
In this country, the first priority of the public schools is to pay union teachers high salaries. The second priority is to produce a corps of faithful union members to get out the vote for the Democrats. The third and last priority is to brainwash the children to vote Democrat when they grow up.
It is to be expected that a public health union will serve the same list of priorities. Pay the workers, use them to get out the vote, and no doubt produce more dead people to vote Democrat with absolute reliability.
Perhaps he simply forgot the trolley fare.
That darn Bush! Look at how he has ruined health care in Scotland!!
Names from your nightmares ping ... DIPIKA TWADDLE
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