Handlers took 96 seconds to answer 999 call as biker lay dying

Emergency handlers took over 96 seconds to answer a 999 call which should have been picked up in five as a father-of-five lay dying, an inquest has heard.

Aaron Morris, 31, was left lying in the road for almost an hour after his motorbike crashed with a car in Esh Winning, County Durham, on July 1, 2022. 

An ambulance should have been on the scene within 18 minutes of the initial 999 call, but Aaron was forced to wait 54 minutes for paramedics to arrive, before he passed away at University Hospital in North Durham later that day. 

Despite suffering leg and chest injuries in the collision, a serious incident report into Aaron's death found that he should have had a 95% chance of survival. 

But 'failings' in the handling of Aaron's case 'led unfortunately to the outcome', an inquest heard.

County Durham and Darlington Coroner's Court this week heard that there was a high volume of 999 calls at the time of the collision, with 56 calls recorded at 12pm. 

The call should have been picked up within five seconds, but the first 999 call requesting medical support for Aaron at 12.27pm was on hold for 96 seconds.

A third-party ambulance company, Ambulunz, which was supporting the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) at the time, was allocated at 1.08pm — 41 minutes after the initial call — and arrived at the scene of the crash at 1.21pm.

Aaron suffered a cardiac arrest en-route to hospital and died at University Hospital of North Durham at 6.40pm that day.

A North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) Serious Incident report into Aaron's death ruled that he would have had a 95% chance of survival of his injuries.

Benjamin Barber, a locality manager and paramedic at NEAS, told the inquest on Wednesday: 'There was a lot of failings through [Aaron's case] which led unfortunately to the outcome.'

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He told the court that a specialist medic, known as a Clinical Team Leader (CTL), who did not attend the scene due to being in a meeting, should have stopped the meeting and attended the call. 

When asked by the Coroner if she should have 'stopped that and gone', Mr Barber said: 'Yes'.

The CTL was based approximately 9.1 miles away in Stanley at the time of the collision, the court heard, and would have arrived between 1pm and 1.13pm if she responded at 12.40pm, when 999 call operators had sufficient information to consider dispatching a CLT.

Earlier this week, the inquest also heard that an air ambulance was available for dispatch to the scene and was monitoring the 999 call. The court was told that it could have arrived in 26 minutes from the decision to dispatch had they been told to attend.

A Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) call handler had contacted an off-duty nurse practitioner on scene for additional information to learn whether additional resources were needed, the inquest was told.

However, the off-duty nurse, who had previously asked 999 for an air ambulance, was not aware that she was speaking to GNAAS at the time as it was protocol for the charity to introduce themselves as the ambulance service. The court heard that protocol has now been changed as a result of this case.

A third-party ambulance company, Ambunulz, which was supporting NEAS, dispatched sent one ambulance to the scene of the collision. 

Earlier this week, the inquest heard that the crew were usually based north of the Tyne and the driver had to rely on directions from Aaron's wife Samantha Morris when they had to divert from Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary to University Hospital of North Durham as Aaron went into cardiac arrest en-route.

Samantha, who lost her husband on her 28th birthday, told the court on Monday: 'I was 13 weeks pregnant and my husband was having CPR in the back of the ambulance. Why should I make the decision on what hospital my husband should be taken to? I have to live with the fact that if I said the RVI he might still be alive to this day.

She added: '[The driver] made the right decision to ask. I don't fault him for that. My fault in that is the people who manage and train him should have given him the tools to know where the nearest hospital is. He made the right decision that day by using what he had, which was me who lives in the local area.'

The inquest is expected to conclude today.