Grandmother of baby who died when paramedics took 30 minutes to reach her says she doesn’t blame ambulance staff – but calls for better management of NHS resources
- Wyllow-Raine Swinburn only few days old when died in Oxford on September 27
- Paramedics took half hour to come after mother Amelia found her unresponsive
- Grandmother Anna-Marie Fisher spoke of the traumatic ordeal on GMB today
The grandmother of a baby who died after paramedic took half an hour to answer an emergency call made a heartfelt plea on GMB today.
Paramedics took more than half an hour to reach dying Wyllow-Raine Swinburn in Oxford on September 27 – 23 minutes longer than expected for a category one emergency.
The desperate family of the baby, who was only three-days-old, spent more than eight minutes on a 999 call after their new born collapsed, having left the hospital just hours earlier.
Speaking on the show today, Wyllow-Raine’s grandmother Anna-Marie Fisher said she believed her granddaughter would still be alive today had the paramedics been able to arrive sooner.
Paramedics took more than half an hour to reach dying Wyllow-Raine Swinburn in Oxford on September 27 – 23 minutes longer than expected for a category one emergency. Wyllow-Raine’s grandmother Anna-Marie Fisher said she believed her granddaughter would still be alive today had the paramedics been able to arrive sooner
The desperate family of the baby, who was only three-days-old, pictured, spent more than eight minutes on a 999 call after their new born collapsed, having left the hospital just hours earlier.
However, the heartbroken grandparents said she was not blaming the paramedics themselves, but called for better management of the NHS resources and said that what happened to Wyllow-Raine ‘couldn’t happen again.’
‘It is far too long for even it to be answered,’ the grandmother said.
‘I don’t blame the paramedics themselves. It has to come from funding, it has to come from management,’ she went on.
‘My son was also doing CPR on Wyllow-Raine while we were running up and down looking for the ambulance,’ she added.
Amelia Pill pictured with her daughter in hospital. The tragic incident took place hours after the family got home
It took 8 minutes for responders to connect the 999 call, and a further half hour for the ambulance to arrive after the baby was found irresponsive by her mother
‘This can’t happen again. I can’t bring Wyllow-Raine back, but hopefully we can prevent this from happening again.
‘With all the cuts and things the NHS are putting through, what is going to be put in place for it not to happen again?’ she asked.
‘It can’t happen again, to any family,’ she concluded.
Speaking on the show’s set, Dr Hilary, who was present during Anna-Marie’s call, said: ‘This is a tragic and extremely sad event and I can guarantee you that the paramedics and first responders who finally got there would have been devastated themselves that they weren’t able to get there quicker.
‘The first ambulance was 24 miles away, the second vehicle arrive shortly after but that was 8 miles away,’ he added.
Ed Balls and Susanna Reid, who were presenting Good Morning Britain today, were deeply touched by the story
Dr Hilary said the paramedics who eventually reached Wyllow-Raine’s home must have been devastated not to have arrived quicker
‘And this is the problem, there just aren’t enough resources in the system to be able to satisfy the need.
The specialist added that many workers are leaving the ambulance service due their conditions.
‘The incidents of category one calls has increased by 36 per cent in the last year,’ he explained.
‘So the demand has increased dramatically but we don’t have ay increase in resources.
‘What we do have are people leaving the paramedic service because the conditions are so awful, morale is so low. We’re actually not retaining staff, we are losing them. We’ve got to address this urgently,’ he added.
Wyllow-Raine Swinburn’s mother Amelia Pill, 29, also said she believed emergency services could have saved her child if they had arrived sooner.
Meanwhile South Central Ambulance Service insisted they have contacted her local MP and launched an investigation.
Ms Fisher told the Times: ‘I’m angry and I want answers. I am not going to go away. I don’t blame the paramedics. This is a system failure. The blame lies with the government.’
Thousands of people have been hit by long ambulance waits and overcrowded A&E departments.
NHS waiting lists have spiralled to record highs amid stark warnings that the ‘horrifying’ situation will only get worse this winter.
Official stats show 6.8million patients in England were in the queue for routine hospital treatment in July — the equivalent of one in eight people.
The backlog includes nearly 380,000 who have faced year-long delays, often while in serious pain.
The news comes after NHS services drew up plans to downgrade certain 999 calls to cope with rising demand.
Over the summer West Midlands residents had to wait for an average of just three seconds for a response while those in the South West are typically waiting one minute 20 seconds.
But one in every 100 callers in Yorkshire was made to wait nine minutes 28 seconds to speak to somebody in April, according to the latest NHS England data.
South Central and South Western ambulance trusts also made one in 100 people wait more than seven minutes that month. An ambulance is supposed to arrive at the most urgent life-threatening emergencies within seven minutes.
The average response time for the most serious calls has soared to more than nine minutes, according to new data.
Wyllow-Raine was born on September 27 in Oxford and was discharged two days later.
Her mother found her unresponsive the next day and immediately started CPR on her and told a family member to call 999.
Ms Fisher said it ‘took a while’ for someone to answer the phone, but when they did answer a member of staff said paramedics were on their way.
Her daughter Amelia was hysterical and started shouting ‘why isn’t anyone coming’.
Paramedics turned up half an hour later and gave the child a shot of adrenaline but she did not recover.
She added: ‘Where was the help? There was no major incident going on in Oxfordshire at four o’clock on that Friday morning.
‘We live two minutes away from Didcot ambulance station and there is an air ambulance station 10 minutes down the road,’ Fisher said. ‘This should never happen, not to a baby, not to an adult.’
A spokeswoman for South Central Ambulance Service said it received the 999 call at 4.38am. ‘Extreme pressure’ meant it took eight minutes to be answered, she said.
The first crew was dispatched eight minutes after the initial call from 24 miles away. A second and third response were dispatched in what the service said was ‘extremely challenging conditions’ with high demand and poor, foggy weather.
‘Our teams do their very best . . . but sadly there are some occasions when despite their best efforts we are unable to reach those patients as quickly as we would like. We are extremely sorry this occurred in this instance. We started an immediate investigation which is progressing,’ the spokeswoman told The Times.
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