A mother expressed her dismay after being told she would have to wait hours for an ambulance after her son went “lifeless” while being transported to the emergency room.
Georgia Faith Johnson dialed 999 when her two-year-old son Tobias suffered a seizure at their house in Cardiff, but was informed there would be an eight-hour wait.
As she attempted to reach A&E, he collapsed, but she was instructed to monitor him along the side of the road.
The Welsh Ambulance Service reported that it was experiencing high pressure.
As the service deals with an increase in 999 calls, response times for the most critical cases – where someone’s life is in immediate danger – have decreased to a joint record low.
“It was quite terrifying,” she said. “To say the least, it terrifies me that my lifeless two-year-old was not deemed an emergency by the paramedics. The cuts to the NHS are so frightening”.
Georgia stated that she dialed 999 after Tobias’ eyes rolled to the back of his head and his face lost color at their house in Cardiff on Monday evening.
She reported that the 999 operators instructed her to “immediately get to the hospital, but there are no ambulances available” and that she would have to wait hours.
Georgia placed her baby in the car and attempted to drive him to A&E, but they were stopped in traffic within minutes.
“As I turned to look at my son, he was sadly quite lifeless,” she stated.
His lips and entire face had lost their color, and he had a sagging appearance.
She dialed 999 and requested an ambulance once more, and was instructed to monitor her son’s rapid breathing.
She stated that she was instructed to remove him from the vehicle, lay him flat, and have someone retrieve a defibrillator in case he went into cardiac arrest.
“At this time, all I could do was scream and beg: please just call an ambulance, to which she replied it would still be at least five hours.”
A few individuals stopped and assisted her while attempting to explain to the call handler that they had no access to a defibrillator.
After one hour, an ambulance saw them in traffic and rushed them to the hospital.
“They were incredible. “They took immediate action,” she stated.
To end Tobias’ seizure, he was drugged for 19 hours.
She stated, “The possibility that what happened to my son and I will become the norm in Wales is upsetting and unsettling.
Not only for those like us but also for NHS employees who are already under extreme pressure.
This week, a dispute between First Minister Mark Drakeford and Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies went viral when Davies criticized Drakeford over ambulance wait times in the Senedd.
The prime minister responded by claiming that the Conservatives were partially responsible for the budget and reputation of the United Kingdom.
Georgia stated that she found it “reassuring” that Mr. Drakeford feels so strongly about the issue of ambulance wait times, and that she could identify with his frustration.
She stated that she did not wish to assign specific responsibility, but emphasized that the ambulance service and the people of Wales deserve much better from the Welsh government.
In September, just fifty percent of replies to red calls, in which life is in immediate danger, arrived within eight minutes, significantly below the objective of sixty-five percent.
The service received 18.1% fewer calls per day compared to the same month last year, with an average of 2,300 calls per day.
However, the ambulance service experienced a 10% increase in the most urgent, life-threatening calls in September.
Intense pressure
A representative for the Welsh government stated that progress continued to be made on the longest waits.
The spokeswoman stated, “Urgent and emergency care personnel are under extreme pressure, and we are working with health and social care sector leaders to assist improvements.
“We recognize that the performance of ambulances is below what we, NHS Wales, and the public expect, and we are pushing a system-wide response to promote improvement.
We want health boards to assume responsibility and promptly eliminate ambulance patient handover delays while collaborating with social care providers to expedite hospital-to-home patient transfers.
The Welsh Ambulance Service expressed regret for Georgia’s upsetting experience and added that it was under great strain.
A representative stated that prolonged hospital handover delays impeded their capacity to reach patients promptly.
