IN GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, AN 82-YR.-OLD man began choking on a piece of food and couldn’t clear his airway. His daughter tried to help but couldn’t so she called the emergency ambulance. Unfortunately for the man, the ambulance crew which was only 500 yards away, was on a dinner break and the dispatcher could not contact them. Ernie Rutkiewicz died while waiting for another ambulance to travel 22 minutes to reach him.
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Ernie Rutkiewicz
Back in April of 2006, the wise bureaucrats of the National Health Service determined that all ambulance personnel must be given a 30-minute dinner break and during that time their unit will be marked off the system. In this case, and many others, the paramedics don’t even know there is an emergency just outside.
A similar situation happened in January of this year in London when a man fell from a heart attack in a neighborhood pub. The ambulance station was just around the corner, but dispatch would not send the unit because they were on prescribed break time. The man died before the next closest unit arrived.
It’s really a sorry state of affairs when some pencil-pusher determines that the comfort of the employees is of a higher priority than the life safety of the citizens. Every time one of these events takes place, the high-ups always express great apologies and promise an “investigation.” But nothing is ever changed.
Read the full story of poor Ernie Rutkiewicz in The Daily Mail HERE.
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