(Image: Leigh Day SWNS)
Mum's desperate plea as 999 call not picked up for seven minutes before baby's death
by Ashlie Blakey · Manchester Evening NewsA mum desperately pleaded for her 999 call to be picked up as she tried to get help for her baby girl.
Amelia Pill tried to get through to the ambulance service as her newborn baby girl Wyllow-Raine Swinburn went into a 'prolonged period of cardiac arrest', the Mirror reports. But it is reported that the mum spent seven minutes waiting for someone to pick up her emergency call.
Desperate for help, she woke her brother by shouting: "Why are they not answering the f****g phone?". Tragically, Wyllow-Raine died aged just three-days-old.
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A pre-inquest review (PIR) into the death of the baby girl was held at Oxford Coroner's Court on Wednesday (October 2), reports the Sun. Wyllow-Raine was born at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on September 27, 2022, and discharged home on the evening of September 29.
But she went on to collapse in the early hours of September 30. It is reported that she died after mum Amelia spent seven minutes waiting for someone to answer a 999 call.
Wyllow-Raine's family spent 40 minutes giving her CPR as they waited for paramedics at their home, Oxford Coroner's Court was told in 2023. At the time Senior Coroner Darren Salter adjourned the inquest to allow for further evidence to be gathered.
(Image: PA)
When Wyllow-Raine appeared to have stopped breathing her mother called an ambulance at 4.38am. However there was a delay of over seven minutes in the emergency call being answered by the ambulance service.
The baby's grandmother Anna Fisher was downstairs looking after the dogs when it happened. She ran upstairs as Amelia was crying: "No-one is coming, no-one is coming."
An ambulance did not arrive at the family home until 5.09am, over 30 minutes after the call was made. The newborn was taken to hospital where devastatingly she was pronounced dead shortly after her arrival.
A post-mortem revealed nothing abnormal about Wyllow-Raine – including any very rare conditions. As a result the paediatric pathologist Dr Darren Farrell determined her cause of death as sudden unexpected death in infancy, unexplained.
Following the death, Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust launched an internal investigation. It found that Wyllow-Raine would have been in a prolonged period of cardiac arrest before the 999 call.
The overall outcome was 'not likely to be influenced by the time taken to answer the 999 call and the arrival of the ambulance'. The full inquest is due to resume on December 2-3, 2024.