It took 54 minutes to get a paramedic to the side of Aaron Morris, 31, after his motorbike crashed with a car on the junction of Priestburn Close and Newhouse Road in Esh Winning, County Durham, on July 1, 2022.
It should have taken 18 minutes, but the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) was overwhelmed with calls and had 65 incidents awaiting a response, Crook Coroners’ Court was told today (Wednesday, November 13).
His wife Samantha, who was 13-weeks pregnant with twins, stumbled across the crash on the way home from hospital, on her birthday.
A 999 call at 12.27pm was on hold for 98 seconds when it should have been answered in five, the court heard, and no ambulance assigned to attend until 1.08pm.
An inquest into Aaron’s death, due to last all week, has been examining whether he could have survived had medics including the air ambulance reached him sooner.
Aaron and Samantha Morris. The hearing was told NEAS should have sent a Clinical Team Leader (CTL) to the scene, with the nearest stationed in Stanley from about 12.40pm.
But the CTL on duty, Sarah Hall, was busy supporting colleagues in a meeting with police about an unrelated incident which she was not meant to be in, and turned down the call to go to Aaron when asked, Senior Assistant Coroner Crispin Oliver heard.
He was told that she had left she could have arrived between 1pm and 1.13pm, ten minutes before a third-party ambulance arrived at Aaron’s side, and been the first rapid responder on scene.
Asked by the Coroner if she should have “stopped that and gone”, Ben Barber from NEAS, who authored a serious incident report after Aaron’s death, replied: “Yes”
It is expected she would have called for another ambulance back up, or the air ambulance, which it is estimated would have arrived between 1.28pm and 1.40pm. The court was told that while she would have been no more equipped to treat Aaron, calling the air ambulance could have triggered life-saving support.
“I think it was just a misunderstanding that day that when Sarah was offered that job she should have responded”, Mr Barber said.
“The CTL role had only been in fruition for about six to eight weeks. The role that most of the people had moved into that position from was more of a managerial role before that day. Previously you would stand yourself down to support staff in those meetings.”
The ambulance service previously told Aaron’s wife Samantha, with whom he had died the knot 14 months earlier, that Aaron’s injuries probably would have been survivable “with faster and more complete interventions” and would have had a 95% chance of survival.
Speaking more widely Mr Barber added: “There was a lot of failings through this [case] which led unfortunately to the outcome.”
Only one ambulance attended, 54 minutes after the first 999 call, from third-party ambulance provider Ambulnz. The paramedic on board did not call for the air ambulance and believed it had refused to come, the court has heard, while its driver did not know the way to the nearest hospital when Aaron went into cardiac arrest on route to the RVI and had to rely on his pregnant wife Samantha for directions.
He died at 6.40pm that day at University Hospital North Durham and never got to meet his unborn twins.
Simon Wilkes, Senior Director of Clinical Services at Ambulnz said crews will now be provided with maps to help them find the nearest hospital.
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He added: “I believe that Andy (the paramedic on an Ambulanz ambulance) should have contacted [the air ambulance].”
NEAS now has a critical care desk to help coordinate responding to major trauma cases, the court heard.
Both Ambulnz and NEAS officials offered apologies and condolences to Samantha Morris from the witness stand.
“I am deeply sorry for what happened”, NEAS Medical Director Dr Cat Noble said.
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