stuff.co.nz wrote: Parents query ambulance delay
By EMILY WATT - The Dominion Post | Saturday, 24 January 2009

The parents of a boy who died after falling from his bike want to know why the ambulance took 36 minutes to get to him, when it should have taken eight.

Talented 14-year-old mountain biker Keegan Lawrence died while jumping his bike at Paremata in October 2007.

A doctor ruled the cause of death was head injury, cardiac arrest and Keegan's brain going without oxygen for a prolonged period of time after his fall.

Although the standard ambulance response time is 8 to 10 minutes, it took 36 minutes for an ambulance to reach him after schoolboys saw the accident from a train and dialled 111.

Keegan was not breathing and had no pulse when the ambulance staff arrived and, although they were eventually able to re-establish a pulse, he died later at hospital.

"After all that delay, the ambulance got his pulse and got him back again," Keegan's father, Mason, said. "The big question is what would have been if they'd been there in 8 to 10 minutes?"

The first 111 call was made at 3.49pm that afternoon by the schoolboy on the train who saw Keegan tumble off his bike and land headfirst.

Police arrived nine minutes later, and finding him not breathing and without a pulse, they began trying to resuscitate him.

The ambulance arrived another 27 minutes later and medics were eventually able to re-establish a pulse and Keegan was taken to hospital.

He died there the next day.

Although the Wellington coroner has declared the death an accident, Keegan's parents, Mason and Chrissy Lawrence, want to know why it took the ambulance so long.

Mr Lawrence said the family was not on a witch-hunt, but he just needed to know that everything had been done that could have been.

"You can't go through life not asking the question," he said. "It's our 14-year-old son and we need to know that they did everything possible to get there."

When asked why the ambulance had taken so long, Detective Mike Smith of Porirua told the court the ambulances were all tied up with other emergencies. A Wellington Free Ambulance spokeswoman said she could not comment on the case until the coroner officially closed the file.

When asked about the delay at the time, a spokesperson said the first person who called did not know if there was any injury, illness or accident, and the communications centre sent police to investigate first, which was normal procedure.

When a second call came in, the fire service, an ambulance rapid response unit, (advanced paramedic in a rapid car), and an ambulance were sent straight away. The ambulance arrived one minute after the fire service.

lukenewguy wrote:nearly two years - RIP Keegan