Posted on 01/08/2023 11:56:56 AM PST by nickcarraway
Hannah Marie's heartbroken fiancé had only 10 minutes to say goodbye to her
Tributes have been paid to an 'amazing' mum-of-three who died just three days before Christmas. Hannah Marie had to wait 11 hours for an ambulance just days before her death.
Now her heartbroken fiancé is calling for government intervention before more people lose their lives in the NHS health crisis. Hannah, 36, started to feel unwell on December 18, so partner James Jackman called for an ambulance at 7.20pm.
The Mirror reports the ambulance would not arrive at their address until the following morning at 6.15am after it was delayed ‘due to demand’. Hannah died three days later on December 22.
Hannah had cystic fibrosis - an inherited condition in which the lungs and digestive system can become clogged with thick, sticky mucus. She had been seeing a specialist at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, near to their home.
Now, her fiancé has recalled his heart-breaking final moments with her as she struggled through her last breaths. James, 38, claims that if the ambulance arrived on time and treatment started 11 hours prior, it "potentially could have made a difference" to saving Hannah's life.
The "fantastic partner and mother" leaves behind three children Miley, 9, Lloyd, 12, and Nikita, 16. James says he has "got no choice" but to cope with Hannah's death.
Hannah commonly suffered with chest infections, but James said ‘not this time’ - something was different. On the night of December 18, the former builder recalled that "she was unwell, breathing-wise".
"Her breathing wasn’t right. So I called an ambulance at 7.20pm, and just tried to make Hannah comfortable."
The couple waited for 11 hours, but James said he has ‘not heard a thing from the ambulance as to why it took 11 hours’. He added: "But, I did have an apology from the paramedics for the delay.
"At no point do I have anything negative to say about the paramedics as they were great and they were really lovely. All the staff that have been involved... it is not their fault at all."
James, who has made it clear that NHS staff are not to blame for Hannah's passing, has urged the government to "act fast" and "pump more resources in" to solve the NHS in crisis "because they haven't got enough staff".
"This needs to come from the top," he says. "There are not enough resources to cope, and they need to organise this, as whatever is happening now is not working."
James, from the Kings Norton area of Birmingham, added: "Because whatever is happening, people are dying. They’re just dying."
When emergency services finally arrived at the family home, he recalls seeing paramedic "staff exhausted," adding he could "physically see on their faces that they were tired and exhausted."
Hannah was then taken to Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth hospital but ended up "waiting quite a number of hours for a bed up in critical care." James said: "Eventually, she got a bed in critical care and was taken up. But her blood pressure wouldn't improve and her oxygen levels weren't improving. They had antibiotics, all sorts of antibiotics driven in her. And then on the day that she died, I had a phone call."
He continued to say that he left the hospital a few hours before the call, but was informed by medics that Hannah wanted him to come in because she had been struggling overnight. The dad recalls getting back to the hospital on December 22 "very fast" where, sadly, he only had ten minutes with her before she passed away.
Devastated James then revealed that his last few moments with his fiancée was the hardest moment of his life, especially as "she knew she was going". "I just told her I loved her," he said. "And that was as much of a conversation as we had because she was trying to breathe through her high pressure oxygen mask."
The fiancé believes that Hannah's care could have been "implemented 11 hours previously" and that could have "well made the difference" in saving her life. "Having those antibiotics earlier" potentially would have made all the difference, he adds.
News of Hannah's passing has left her young children completely "heartbroken" as they "had such a fabulous relationship with their mother". He continued to say: "She was a very mumsy-mum and was very outgoing... she really was. The whole thing had just left us numb."
While they are being supported by their school, James says that he is also being supported by friends and family and the cystic fibrosis ward at Hannah's hospital, who have also applied for a £750 grant for support. But the heartbroken single dad says that despite the support system he has in place, he has been left feeling like he has "lost his right arm."
He said: "It's destroyed me. I am in the lowest of places as you can imagine. It's just numbing. I just cannot get my head around it, and I don’t think I've 100% quite processed it." But James says that he must continue to look after his family, saying: "I've got to cope, I've got four kids. I've got no choice. I’ve got to cope."
The cost of the funeral is another thing that is weighing heavily on James' mind, admitting that “it's going to be quite a difficult thing to achieve," as he is relying on the donations from the GoFundMe page due to not being able to work as a result of a spinal injury when he was a builder. He is also a full time-carer for Miley, nine, who has autism.
Aside from the fundraiser, James says that close family have been supporting them, where "her cousin, Daniella, a boxer, is trying to raise some funds – doing 38 rounds, to do so." And after attempting to spend Christmas together as a family, because that "was what Hannah would have wanted," James says that he has organised a meal with close family at the venue the pair were meant to get married at.
After getting engaged on a leap year, February 29 2020, where Hannah proposed to James, the pair were looking to get married at Westmead Hotel in Redditch, Birmingham. Coincidentally, the date chosen for Hannah's memorial is also her birthday, January 7, where James admits that he will attempting to give a speech in front of 20 people.
James has gone on to describe his fiancée as "loud-mouthed and passionate", revealing that she was well-known in her community because she had a small business setting up balloon displays at parties. While her health "made life debilitating and had its issues for her," she put it aside and continued with her business, which James says "became more of a hobby" - right up until her passing.
He added that Hannah "was a fighter until the very end. She was amazing, a fantastic partner and mother. Just brilliant."
A GoFundMe page has been set up by Hannah's neighbour to help the family with financial costs relating to the funeral, where over £2,000 of a £10,000 goal has been raised. You can donate here.
A spokesperson for West Midlands Ambulance Service said: "Firstly, we would like to apologise to the family of Miss Houghton for the delayed response and offer our condolences. Sadly, we are seeing some patients wait a very long time for ambulances to arrive as a result of long hospital handover delays.
"The pressures we are seeing in health and social care means that when our crews arrive at A&E they are unable to handover patients to hospital staff and therefore cannot respond to the next patient in the community. If there are long hospital handover delays, with our crews left caring for patients that need admitting to hospital, they are simply unable to responding to the next call, which can impact on the care of the patient in the community.
“We are working incredibly hard with our partners to find new ways to reduce these delays, so that our crews can respond more quickly and save more lives."
Another FR article was describing an effort to get Brits to give up their cars. I think I would drive my iwn mother to the hospital rather than wait 11 hours.
He could have done a fireman's carry to hospital.
Lemme guess....the ambulwas an EV and they had to wait to charthe battery.
I don’t mean that as a joke and I’m not making light of someone’s death.
Lemme guess....the ambulance was an EV and they had to wait to charge the battery.
I don’t mean that as a joke and I’m not making light of someone’s death.
In some cases don’t they need an EMT to transport someone?
Um….call a taxi?
This is Birmingham not deep space.
Her cause of death was due to being a non-elite caucasian heterosexual citizen.
Very sad story. I fear we are not far behind this situation in the U.S.
There are generally two types of transport: Basic and then life support. Basic is transport with EMTs and are not generally life threatening. Life Support usually includes a paramedic and includes life sustaining treatment.
This sounds like someone did not dispatch the “proper” crew.
Bit I guarantee Ahmed the refugee didn’t wait more than two minutes to get a ride to the hospital for some free asprin.
Sorry for this guy's loss but if he thinks, the people that created this problem are going to fix it, he is only deluding himself.
it was delayed ‘due to demand’.
never heard of triage i guess...
Look up the average wait time here in an ER. Here is a hint. It is longer than 11 hours.
Happened to a coworker of mine this week. 12 hour wait. Her husband had a rupture and was told to go home.
Our medical system is bad. And getting worse
Sending weapons and money to Ukraine is more important than a Government fulfilling it's agreement and responsibility to provide Healthcare to it's citizens.
Slava Ukraine!
In the USA, the vast majority of emergency ambulance service is organized and provided at the local level, and in rural areas by volunteers. The idea of waiting for people at "the top" nationally or even regionally is mistaking the problem for the solution.
Yeah.
Rest assured, the health care overcrowding and long delays here in the U.S. are being given shade because Brandon is in the White House. Just like homelessness and illegal immigration. As soon as conservatives are back, it will become a media crisis.
“But, I did have an apology from the paramedics for the delay.”
Well that makes it all better then.
L
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