I'm posting this article in full and directly. All I will say is that I am amazed the Polis haven't been blamed for not getting there quicker either.
A grieving mum sobbed as she heard how a paramedic was not allowed to treat her son as he bled to death.
Stab victim Stuart Baillie, 19, lay dying in the street after being knifed in the neck.
Paramedic Mairi Lennon was on the scene within minutes, but was banned from leaving her rapid-response vehicle as she was the only medic at the scene.
Yesterday's Daily Record exclusively revealed the scandal as unions warned of the dangers of replacing up to 70 ambulances with the one-person cars.
Stuart's mum Christine Halley said yesterday: "My boy might have been saved - we'll never know. If a medically trained person is on the scene and there is someone bleeding to death, treatment has to be carried out. To suggest otherwise is madness. A rule which prevents a paramedic leaving their vehicle is unbelievable. It's unacceptable and has to be changed. It won't bring my son back, but it might prevent this sort of thing happening again."
Mairi had to watch for 13 minutes as Stuart's life slipped away in a street in Easterhouse.
Her terms of employment and an order from HQ banned her from getting out of her car at a violent incident without back-up. She had to wait for a two-man ambulance.
Christine, 40, of Ballieston, Glasgow, said: "The idea of a trained medical person sitting in a car looking on as my son lay in the street is too much to bear. Stuart was attacked at about 12.15am. He died at the scene but was not pronounced dead until 5.30am. We'll never know what night have happened if he'd been treated straight away."
Christine did not even know a rapid-response paramedic had been called on the night her son died until the Record told her. Sitting with son Scott and daughter Roxanne, she broke down in tears as she said: "I can't believe this - I'm struggling to even take this in."
Scaffolder Stuart had three sisters and two brothers. Roxanne, 17, said: "We can't understand the point of a paramedic being there and not being able to treat someone. Why send the paramedic in the first place?"
The Record told how paramedic Mairi, 35, would have lost her job if she had followed her instincts and helped Stuart. She is convinced she could have saved his life and is off work with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the incident.
Unions highlighted the case as proof the Scottish Ambulance Service's shock plan to axe a chunk of the country's 435 ambulances could be deadly. The idea has enraged politicians, GPs and patient watchdogs.
Ian Lowrie, 19, was caged for 11 years last month for the culpable homicide of Stuart last August. A cabbie heard the thug on his mobile phone telling a pal: "I plunged the b******. I put it right through him." Gang member Lowrie was charged with murder, but admitted the reduced charge of culpable homicide. The court heard Stuart and a pal had rowed with Lowrie and one of his mates and Lowrie was hit with a bottle. He returned with a knife and stabbed Stuart repeatedly.
Christine said: "We've been let down badly by the justice system - but now this. The police told me it was premeditated murder, as the killer fought with Stuart, went into a house to fetch a knife and came out and stabbed my son in the neck. How is that culpable homicide and not murder? A deal was done and it stinks. The first I knew about it was when the prosecution told me a deal had been done. I wasn't consulted - I was told. The final insult was when Stuart's killer winked at me in court. The experience has been a nightmare and to hear a paramedic could have had a chance at saving Stuart just made it worse."
The local rag had this telling quote;
Mr Baillie’s mother Christine said she blamed NHS cutbacks. She said: “I am just shattered, totally and utterly shattered. It is not right, it is not human, it doesn’t seem right at all. She (the Paramedic) sat there and listened to his screams. She said something like that would haunt her forever.”
Over to all you loons and quines to comment on this quandary.
Update: I am indebted to Captain America over at First In for this link to an equally thought provoking news report video from Philly.
OK folks, I've started a veritable fire-storm and here's even more.
© NoddyPublished by Toy Town™ Times
