EU rule: Ambulance crews
take break while man dies
Heart-attack victim forced to wait 20 minutes,
although emergency vehicles 5 minutes away
Posted: January 6, 2007
5:00 p.m. Eastern

When a 73-year-old Londoner collapsed at a betting shop on New Year's
Eve afternoon, his luck had run out - thanks to European Union rules
that required two nearby ambulance crews to be kept on their 30-minute
breaks.

A paramedic arrived by rapid-response car in a matter of minutes to
the shopping center where the unnamed senior was stricken and began
caring for the man. Witnesses say he made desperate calls on his cell
phone in an attempt to have an ambulance dispatched.

The London Ambulance Service, which has launched an investigation of
the incident, confirmed that two crews were on a mandated break at a
station five minutes away from the shopping center, but they could not
be disturbed, the London Daily Mail reported.

Under rules mandated by the European Working Time Directive, adopted
in December, ambulance crews working shifts between six and 10 hours
long are allocated a rest break of 30 minutes and cannot be sent out
on 999 calls - the UK equivalent to 911 emergencies in the U.S.

LAS dispatched an ambulance from a neighboring community, but it did
not arrive for over 20 minutes after the original emergency phone
call.

"We dispatched a rapid-response car, which arrived at the shopping
center within eight minutes at 1:30 pm, the member of staff being able
to start treatment immediately," a spokesman for LAS said. "An
ambulance was sent at 1:32 pm after it became available from attending
another incident and, according to our records, arrived at the
shopping center at 1:41 pm and at the patient a few minutes later.

"The man stopped breathing shortly afterwards and efforts were made to
resuscitate him both at the scene and on the way to North Middlesex
Hospital, where he arrived at approximately 2:10 pm."

"It is disgusting," said eyewitness Sheldon Trevatt of Edmonton. "The
man worked all his life paying his national insurance. If that
ambulance had been there earlier I think his life would have been
saved."

In another London ambulance mishap last year, a crew transporting a
mental health patient 10 miles between two hospitals, drove 200 miles,
using the vehicle's faulty satellite navigation system, before
realizing their error. The patient was unharmed.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53660

--
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS

"There are no absolute certainties in this universe. A man must try to
whip order into a yelping pack of probabilities, and uniform success is
impossible." -- Jack Vance

"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.


"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant

Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net

EU rule: Ambulance crews
take break while man dies
Heart-attack victim forced to wait 20 minutes,
although emergency vehicles 5 minutes away
Posted: January 6, 2007
5:00 p.m. Eastern

EU rule: Ambulance crews
take break while man dies
Heart-attack victim forced to wait 20 minutes,
although emergency vehicles 5 minutes away
Posted: January 6, 2007
5:00 p.m. Eastern

When a 73-year-old Londoner collapsed at a betting shop on New Year's
Eve afternoon, his luck had run out - thanks to European Union rules
that required two nearby ambulance crews to be kept on their 30-minute
breaks.

EU rule: Ambulance crews
take break while man dies
Heart-attack victim forced to wait 20 minutes,
although emergency vehicles 5 minutes away
Posted: January 6, 2007
5:00 p.m. Eastern

When a 73-year-old Londoner collapsed at a betting shop on New Year's
Eve afternoon, his luck had run out - thanks to European Union rules
that required two nearby ambulance crews to be kept on their 30-minute
breaks.

A paramedic arrived by rapid-response car in a matter of minutes to
the shopping center where the unnamed senior was stricken and began
caring for the man. Witnesses say he made desperate calls on his cell
phone in an attempt to have an ambulance dispatched.

The London Ambulance Service, which has launched an investigation of
the incident, confirmed that two crews were on a mandated break at a
station five minutes away from the shopping center, but they could not
be disturbed, the London Daily Mail reported.

Under rules mandated by the European Working Time Directive, adopted
in December, ambulance crews working shifts between six and 10 hours
long are allocated a rest break of 30 minutes and cannot be sent out
on 999 calls - the UK equivalent to 911 emergencies in the U.S.

LAS dispatched an ambulance from a neighboring community, but it did
not arrive for over 20 minutes after the original emergency phone
call.

"We dispatched a rapid-response car, which arrived at the shopping
center within eight minutes at 1:30 pm, the member of staff being able
to start treatment immediately," a spokesman for LAS said. "An
ambulance was sent at 1:32 pm after it became available from attending
another incident and, according to our records, arrived at the
shopping center at 1:41 pm and at the patient a few minutes later.

"The man stopped breathing shortly afterwards and efforts were made to
resuscitate him both at the scene and on the way to North Middlesex
Hospital, where he arrived at approximately 2:10 pm."

"It is disgusting," said eyewitness Sheldon Trevatt of Edmonton. "The
man worked all his life paying his national insurance. If that
ambulance had been there earlier I think his life would have been
saved."

In another London ambulance mishap last year, a crew transporting a
mental health patient 10 miles between two hospitals, drove 200 miles,
using the vehicle's faulty satellite navigation system, before
realizing their error. The patient was unharmed.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53660

--
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS

"There are no absolute certainties in this universe. A man must try to
whip order into a yelping pack of probabilities, and uniform success is
impossible." -- Jack Vance

"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.


"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant

Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net

EU rule: Ambulance crews
take break while man dies
Heart-attack victim forced to wait 20 minutes,
although emergency vehicles 5 minutes away
Posted: January 6, 2007
5:00 p.m. Eastern

When a 73-year-old Londoner collapsed at a betting shop on New Year's
Eve afternoon, his luck had run out – thanks to European Union rules
that required two nearby ambulance crews to be kept on their 30-minute
breaks.

A paramedic arrived by rapid-response car in a matter of minutes to
the shopping center where the unnamed senior was stricken and began
caring for the man. Witnesses say he made desperate calls on his cell
phone in an attempt to have an ambulance dispatched.

The London Ambulance Service, which has launched an investigation of
the incident, confirmed that two crews were on a mandated break at a
station five minutes away from the shopping center, but they could not
be disturbed, the London Daily Mail reported.

Under rules mandated by the European Working Time Directive, adopted
in December, ambulance crews working shifts between six and 10 hours
long are allocated a rest break of 30 minutes and cannot be sent out
on 999 calls – the UK equivalent to 911 emergencies in the U.S.

LAS dispatched an ambulance from a neighboring community, but it did
not arrive for over 20 minutes after the original emergency phone
call.

"We dispatched a rapid-response car, which arrived at the shopping
center within eight minutes at 1:30 pm, the member of staff being able
to start treatment immediately," a spokesman for LAS said. "An
ambulance was sent at 1:32 pm after it became available from attending
another incident and, according to our records, arrived at the
shopping center at 1:41 pm and at the patient a few minutes later.

"The man stopped breathing shortly afterwards and efforts were made to
resuscitate him both at the scene and on the way to North Middlesex
Hospital, where he arrived at approximately 2:10 pm."

"It is disgusting," said eyewitness Sheldon Trevatt of Edmonton. "The
man worked all his life paying his national insurance. If that
ambulance had been there earlier I think his life would have been
saved.”

In another London ambulance mishap last year, a crew transporting a
mental health patient 10 miles between two hospitals, drove 200 miles,
using the vehicle's faulty satellite navigation system, before
realizing their error. The patient was unharmed.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53660