UK NEWS

WIDOW'S ANGUISH IN FIGHT OVER 999 DEATH

Alfred Thresher was transferred to second ambulance, after the first broke down

Monday May 19,2008

By David Gibbs

THE widow of a pensioner who died on the way to hospital after an ambulance broke down yesterday accused health chiefs of robbing him of his dignity.

Alfred Thresher was transferred to a second ambulance but died in the back before it could reach hospital.

Now a coroner has rebuked health chiefs for sending out the faulty vehicle after it had suffered problems for “some time”.

His distraught widow Brenda, 71, said yesterday: “My husband was very badly let down by the ambulance service. It was very harrowing for both of us.”

Mrs Thresher was speaking after a second inquest – on Friday – into the death of Mr Thresher, 73, from the lung condition cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis.

The first, in July 2003, recorded a verdict of natural causes. But Mrs Thresher fought for the second inquest because the delay caused by the ambulance breakdown did not come to light until after the first hearing.

At the new inquest at Nottingham Coroner’s Court, coroner Dr Nigel Chapman confirmed the original verdict but ordered ambulance officials to review maintenance routines after hearing the first vehicle had suffered problems for “some time”.

The new inquest heard that Mr Thresher, who died in the back of the second vehicle as he fought severe breathing problems, would have reached the city’s Queen’s Medical Centre hospital 32 minutes earlier if the first ambulance had not been slowed to 10mph by a damaged suspension.

Mrs Thresher said yesterday the second inquest had been justified “because on that day my husband lost his dignity”.

Lorna Hardman, a solicitor for East Midlands Ambulance Service, said improvements had been made in the five years since Mr Thresher’s death.

She said: “We have significantly increased the numbers of crews and vehicles available and are now one of the top-performing trusts in the country.”