A PARAMEDIC faces disciplinary action after he failed to take to hospital a man in agony who died hours later.
Father-of-four Derek Davidson, 68, from Salford, died less than seven hours after the paramedic had examined him but decided not to transfer him to hospital.
His family are taking legal action. Experts believe Mr Davidson would have survived if he had been admitted to hospital sooner. Mr Davidson was suffering internal bleeding due to a rupture of a main artery.
The North West Ambulance Trust has admitted the paramedic was guilty of a breach of duty and referred the case to the Health Professions' Council. A hearing will take place later this month.
Mr Davidson became ill in the early hours of February 3 last year, complaining of severe back pain.
Several baths and painkillers failed to ease the pain and his wife, June, decided to call 999 and ask for an ambulance.
An ambulance crew arrived at the couple's home in Seedley about 3.30am and a paramedic carried out a brief examination of Mr Davidson.
Mrs Davidson said "He had been here for about two minutes when he said he was not taking him to hospital. I was very taken aback.
"He said they could not do anything for back pain at hospital and that if Derek was no better he could see a GP in the morning."
Drug
The paramedic also gave Mr Davidson an injection of an anti-inflammatory drug and spoke to an on-call GP on the phone. Mrs Davidson said: "I was not made party to what was said between him and the GP, except to be told that the GP was not coming out.
"I was asked to sign two forms. I remember asking him what I was signing for. He said one was to say that they had attended and the other was to say he had given Derek an injection.
"I was only to discover later that I had signed a form indicating that we had refused ambulance transfer to hospital." Mrs Davidson called 999 again as her husband's condition had got worse and the same crew arrived at 6.30am. She said: "He said he couldn't breathe. I knew it was bad. He was a horrible grey colour."
The same paramedic who had examined Mr Davidson before checked him again. By now he was unconscious.
Mrs Davidson said: "I went with Derek in the ambulance and kept saying to him that if he could hear me he should open his eyes - he never did."
Untreatable
At Hope Hospital Mrs Davidson and her family were told Mr Davidson's condition was untreatable and he died at 10am.
The cause of death was an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Mrs Davidson said: "I made a complaint to the ambulance trust and it became apparent that the paramedic had ignored or dismissed classic symptoms of such an aneurysm. I believe the reasons he gave me to sign the forms are also under investigation.
"I am not interested in taking action for money. I have never felt so strongly about anything in my life. I want justice for Derek."
Trevor Ward, of Manchester-based solicitors Linder Myers, said: "The family are grateful that there was a fairly quick admission of responsibility by the ambulance trust. They are yet to hear as to whether the trust will argue whether Mr Davidson's death was inevitable in any event."
The North West Ambulance Service said: "We have apologised to the family for the distress this incident has caused."
Comments
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I have sympathy for the paramedics concerned. How can they be expected to make such a diagnosis on the basis of symptoms only and an examination at the patients home?
It takes around eight to ten years to train a GP to do the same thing, and even they are not infallible.
The real question therefore to be asked is why paramedics are being asked to make such diagnoses in the first place?
The answer of course is that it is ostensibly cheaper as paramedics are paid around half a fully trained A&E consultant salary. However this is a false economy as the latter will be more reliable (incurring fewer litigation costs) and immensely more productive, able to diagnose and treat many patients in the time it takes a paramedic to see one.
This sort of thing is going to happen a lot more. Welcome to NHS Lite- the service that provides cheap but not cost effective care. There's a reason why it takes a long time to train a doctor. A few weeks bolt-on primary care / emergency medicine training for nurses and paramedics doesn't make them doctors (GP's or consultants).
This case is one of THE classic curve-balls that medicine throws at Doctors. The longer you are a Doctor, the more often you recognise these curve-balls. The symptoms in this case and full examination of the patient would almost certainly have been enough to clinch the diagnosis.
The general public really are not aware of just how much pseudo-doctors (Surgical Nurse Practitioners, Advanced Paramedics, Specialist Nurses etc) are being propagated to reduce waiting times etc - it's purely politically driven.
This story will not be the last until these people are reigned in - or sent to medical school like the rest of us Doctors!
This is what happens when the govt. tries to replace doctors with allied professions. There is no replacement to the many years of study put in by doctors and trying to provide medicine on the cheap just doesn't work.
Allied professionals are taking on too much responsibility. They are not paid for it, and the public are certainly not safe. Let Doctors be Doctors and all the others remain within their group too. This will probably ruin the paramedic's life. Lets not forget he was a caring individual otherwise he would not have got the job in the first place.
This is NHS care at its worst. Doctors train for up to 10 years after graduating to become expert in recognising and treating life threatening conditions like this. Paramedics have far less training and cannot have the same level of expertise. They should not be allowed to have the level of responsibility that this one had.
I am a serving paramedic in this authority. This individual operated outside his very rigid protocols and will inevitably suffer the consequences. If i had ??5 for every time I had taken a heart failure patient into hospital who had recently been diagnosed as a" leave at home chest infection" by an inaccurate GP, I,d be a person of some means. Less professional snobbery and witch hunting is what the NHS needs.
firstly my sincere condolances to mrs davidson and family.
secondly i know how let down she must feel, we all put our health in the hands of the ambulance, nhs, doctors etc. my brother was 37 years old and had a liver biopsy in febuary of this year 10 days later he collapsed, 10 days after that he passed away aparently the biopsy needle had cut an artery but had stayed inside the liver bleeding internally for the 10 days. the inquest's verdict was narrative conclusion? never yheard of it in my life.
i wish mrs davidson all the best in fighting for justice and i appreciate what she means about shes not fighting for money, it is exactly what she says justice for the people who should be here but are not through no fault of their own