Collapsed Shropshire woman died after ambulance delay

Jennifer Ekstein, 66, had breathing difficulties and collapsed to the floor at her home.

Today West Midlands Ambulance Service issued an apology to Ms Ekstein’s partner Julie Garswood, who desperately tried to keep her alive with CPR as she waited for paramedics to arrive.

Ms Garswood said: “Sadly my partner passed away. The ambulance was too late. How can it take 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive? This was an emergency.”

Ms Ekstein was at the couple’s home near Baschurch when she collapsed and a visiting family member called the emergency services.

Ms Garswood was instructed by the emergency call handler on how to perform CPR. The 999 line remained open as they awaited the ambulance.

She said: "I was doing CPR for the whole time and the operator was telling me what to do. It was awful. It was a horrible situation to be in and felt like it was going on for ages."

Paramedics took over treatment when they eventually arrived and took Ms Ekstein to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital but she could not be saved.

Guidance currently calls for ambulances to reach critical patients who are not breathing or do not have a pulse, within eight minutes in 75% of cases.

Jamie Arrowsmith, of West Midlands Ambulance Service, said there were some problems accessing the property, adding: “It is extremely rare that it takes us so long to get a patient in such a serious condition. Upon receipt of the 999 call, the closest available ambulance was dispatched to the scene, which was estimated to be 16 minutes away.

“Following instructions given by the caller on how to reach the property, the ambulance came across a steep muddy hill when nearing the scene. It soon became apparent the ambulance was not going to be able to drive up the hill, so the crew had to turn around and reverse up it instead.

“As a result the ambulance arrived at the scene 26 minutes and 24 seconds after the call was made. We would like to apologise to the family of Mrs Ekstein for the time it took the ambulance to arrive.”

Ms Ekstein was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer nine years ago. She had been cancer free for five years but it came back at the start of the year. As well as lodging a complaint with the ambulance service, Ms Garswood says there were delays in treatment at RSH in the months before her death, a claim being investigated by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.

She says there were delays in treatment and in starting chemotherapy. She added: “Jenny’s care shows there are problems in regards to patient’s welfare, safety, treatments, shortage of beds and the hospital itself being understaffed.”

Deirdre Fowler, director of nursing at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “I would like to extend my condolences to Ms Garswood and her partner’s family and friends at this difficult time.

“We cannot comment on individual cases but commit to investigating the complaint robustly to identify any problems with the care provided.

“We are in direct contact with Ms Garswood with the aim of learning from any issues we identify and sharing them widely across the trust.

“Patient stories are recognised as an effective and powerful way of making sure that the voice of our patients, and their family and friends, is heard and that improvement of services is centred on the needs of our patients.”