Ambulance service apologises after teen lost his life due to 999 call failings

South Africa News News

Ambulance service apologises after teen lost his life due to 999 call failings
South Africa Latest News,South Africa Headlines
  • 📰 LiveLancs
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 59 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 27%
  • Publisher: 87%

Absolutely tragic. RIP

Ambulance service bosses have said "sorry" after a call handler's errors contributed to the death of a teenage boy who was electrocuted on a football pitch.

The heavy pole made contact with overhead power cables carrying 11,000 volts and Luke, along with his pals Lewis Geszke and Ben Wilcock, fell to the ground as their friends saw flames coming from the top of the pole along with a sizzling sound. Luke initially got up but immediately collapsed again and his friend Ben Doherty called 999.

In a statement the ambulance service said they are "extremely sorry" that paramedics didn't reach Luke in time. Had CPR been commenced within 10 minutes, and had a defibrillator at the club been used within 20 to 30 minutes of the incident, cardiac consultant Dr Ian Schofield said Luke probably would have survived.

“We have thoroughly investigated what happened and identified a number of contributory factors, including elements of the triage system that was used at the time. We have also changed policy and procedures and updated our systems to better utilise the technology which now exists and which can assist in pinpointing incident locations. Extra guidance and training have also been provided to our control room colleagues to prevent this from happening again in the future.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

LiveLancs /  🏆 10. in UK

South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines



Render Time: 2025-03-12 08:43:25