Ambulance service under fire over patient delay
Martina Simmons suffered the haemorrhage at her Aspen Park Road home on June 6 and the emergency services were called at 11pm.
A first responder arrived within three minutes but it took more than two hours for an ambulance to arrive and take her to Weston General Hospital. The wait, 15 times longer than the government target time of eight minutes, left Martina, 36, crawling on the floor in pain until she lost consciousness.
She did not arrive at hospital until 1.25am and by this time she was in a coma and surgeons judged it too late to transfer her to Frenchay for potentially life-saving surgery. Martina died the following day at the Grange Road hospital, where she worked in the Berrow acute medical ward.
Her widower Shaun, a Royal Navy reservist, says the delayed ambulance took away Martina's chance of survival. The 39-year-old said: "I think about it everyday – Martina could have had a chance if the ambulance had got to her sooner. I made the call and they told me an ambulance would be on its way.
"I never believed it would take more than two hours for them to arrive. Martina was in absolute agony and a first responder was ringing every 10 minutes asking where the ambulance was.
"I couldn't take her myself because I had my son in bed and needed to make arrangements with my ex-wife to pick him up. I didn't realise at the time I was watching my life fall apart."
The couple were due to go to Majorca two weeks ago, to celebrate their third wedding anniversary. Instead, Shaun held a funeral for his wife last month at Weston Crematorium.
Martina, originally from Slovakia, had trained as an agricultural vet at Bratislava University and moved to London as an au pair in 1998.
Shaun added: "We met through an internet dating site and hit it off straight away. We dated for a while and then she moved in with me in Weston and began work as a nurse at the hospital.
"Since she came to Weston she made so many friends. She was just so cheerful to everybody, people loved her and we had well over 200 people come to her funeral. Martina was my everything; she gave me a burst of new life and plans for the future. Her death has left me utterly broken."
Great Weston Ambulance Service has apologised.
Clinical director Dr Ossie Rawstorne said: "A paramedic arrived on the scene to attend to Mrs Simmons within three minutes of the calls.
"However, the delay in back-up to transport the patient to hospital is completely unacceptable. I apologise wholeheartedly to the relatives and friends of this patient and give my condolences to Mr Simmons, the patient's husband.
"An investigation is underway so that we can learn from this unfortunate incident."
Shaun is using the tragedy to launch a 'more NHS Resources in Weston' campaign. He believes the 2006 merger of Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire ambulance services into Great Western Ambulance Service has affected ambulance call-out times.
Shaun continued: "I was told on the night that there were only two ambulances covering the Weston area. That, on a Friday night in a busy resort town, is nowhere near enough.
"I want to see more ambulances out on call so this can never happen to anyone else.
"I won't let this rest until something is done."
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