County Durham widow speaks out after two-year wait for answers on husband's death
by Nicole Goodwin · ChronicleLiveFor over two years a young widow has waited for answers on how her husband died after a collision, despite having a high chance of survival.
Samantha Morris was 13-weeks pregnant when she lost husband Aaron Morris on her 28th birthday. His motorbike was involved in a low-speed collision with a car at a junction in Esh Winning, County Durham, on July 1, 2022.
Today, a five-day inquest into his death concluded, ruling that it was "highly likely" that the 31-year-old would have survived had "available specialist medical treatment been applied in a timely manner." County Durham and Darlington Senior Assistant Coroner, Crispin Oliver, ruled that: "Aaron Morris died from injuries sustained in a road traffic collision and failures in the response of the ambulance service, contributed to by neglect."
Following the inquest, Samantha said it had been a "difficult, emotional and exhausting week", during which she has had to listen to "excuses and arguing over the minutes leading to Aaron's death". But she is now hoping to have closure and time to greive and focus on her children, including their twin boys who are now two and doing "amazing" after being born at 27 weeks, just three months after their dad's tragic passing.
Samantha said: "For almost two and a half years, my focus has been on finding answers as to why Aaron died and this inquest. I have spent much of that time in hospital with my twin boys, who were born prematurely and who have received a lot of medical treatment since then. I want to now focus on my children and moving forwards.
"I hope that, now the inquest has concluded, I will have some closure and I hope I can finally have the time to grieve."
Samantha, 30, praised the coroner for his "very thorough investigation" in the inquest, which opened in May but was later adjorned for further evidence. When the inquest resumed on Monday there were further delays after new police body cam footage surfaced, which had previously not been seen by the coroner.
The inquest today concluced that "delayed allocation of an ambulance to deploy to the scene due to overstretched resources" likely contributed to Aaron's death due to not receiving treatment on time. It comes after the court heard how Aaron lay in the road for almost an hour after the collision with leg and chest injuries, due to the 54 minute wait for an ambulance to arrive by his side. It should have arrived in 18 minutes.
The first 999 call requesting paramedics to the scene was also delayed as a call which should have been answered in five seconds was on hold for 96 seconds.
The Coroner also ruled that "failure of [the] ambulance service's Clinical Team Leader to deploy to the scene from 12.52pm, when there was certainly enough information for her to do so", was another failure which could have led to Aaron's death. During the inquest, the court heard that a Clinical Team Leader (CTL), was based approximately 9.1 miles away in Stanley at the time of the collision and could have attended.
However, the CTL was in a meeting she didn't need to be in and did not dispatch to the scene when a colleague queried whether she was available. She was the only operating CTL at the time of the collision, an inquest heard, and could have requested the support of an air ambulance. The CTL was a new role within the Trust at the time.
Samantha added: "[The Coroner] has taken great care in digesting the extensive evidence from the inquest and delivered a detailed conclusion that neglect contributed to Aaron's death. I do feel that all of the circumstances leading to Aaron's tragic death have been investigated fully."
She also praised the efforts of NEAS and the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS), which have both implemented changes following Aaron's death. Samantha said she would now feel confident requesting an ambulance.
She said: "The transparency and proactive approach of NEAS and GNAAS is appreciated and I am glad lessons have been learnt. Changes have already been implemented to prevent other families having to go through such a terrible experience. They have offered me support before, during and after the inquest and we have had open discussions about how the new trauma desk works and the organisation changes that have been made.
"After hearing the evidence from Dr Noble, Medical Director for NEAS, on preventing future deaths, I would now feel confident dialling 999 and requesting a North East Ambulance which I never thought I would say. I do not doubt that, had GNAAS attended, the skills and expertise of their paramedics would have saved Aaron’s life. We are lucky to have such a charity in our region."
Samantha added: "I would like to thank Durham Constabulary, The University Hospital of North Durham, Steve the Family Liaison Officer from NEAS and Lee, the Family Liaison Officer from Durham Constabulary, together with the support of my legal team from Irwin Mitchell. I don't know how I could have coped with this without my legal team and I would encourage all families to seek representation in this situation. I would have struggled to do this alone when other parties involved had access to legal representation."
Dr Kat Noble, medical director for North East Ambulance Service, said: "Firstly, I would like to say to Samantha, and all of Aaron's family that I am deeply sorry.
"When concerns were raised with us about Aaron’s care, we reported these as a serious incident and undertook a thorough investigation into what had happened. We shared the outcome of the serious investigation review with Aaron's family.
"There were a number of organisations involved in this case and we unreservedly apologise for not providing the right care from our service when Aaron needed it. We accept that opportunities were missed to deploy a clinical team leader to this incident. This is the responsibility of the teams monitoring incoming and changing information about a patient’s condition, rather than one responder alone and we have made changes to our deployment processes to ensure that this couldn't happen again.
"There were a number of other actions arising from the review of this incident that we have taken forward to improve the coordination of our response and we fully accept the coroner’s findings and conclusion."
Following the five-day inquest, the Coroner thanked the organisations required to give evidence for their "highly instructive" and "responsible" approach. He added: "The response to what happened here has been a model of how institution interested persons in inquests should respond to a situation like this."
Laura Gabbey-Cristofini, specialist Fatal Accident Solicitor at Irwin Mitchell representing Aaron's family, said: "The last couple of years and trying to come to terms with Aaron's tragic death has been incredibly difficult for Samantha. Her pain has been compounded by the many unanswered questions and concerns she had regarding the events that unfolded.
"While nothing can make up for what Aaron's family have gone through and continue to face, we're pleased that the Inquest has provided some answers and it is very clear that lessons have been learnt and changes have already been made so that other families do not have to face the unbearable loss Samantha has.
"We continue to support Samantha and the rest of Aaron's family at this emotional time."
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