Mum told to give seriously ill son painkillers amid ambulance delay

The mother of a Belfast man, who collapsed outside a hospital, said she was shocked when a 999 call handler told her he should take painkillers as they would have to wait hours for an ambulance.

Brian Rooney, 35, suffered a cardiac arrest outside the Royal Victoria Hospital's emergency department after his bowel had perforated at home.

He is now in an induced coma following emergency surgery, which resulted in the removal of his intestine.

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) apologised to Mr Rooney and his family "for not meeting their expectations in terms of the care provided to him".

It said it is "unable to comment publicly on the detail of individual cases" but would "welcome the opportunity to discuss, directly with the family, the issues raised".

Mr Rooney is in a critical but stable condition.

His mother Isobel Benson called 999 after her son felt an "explosion" in his chest and was "screaming in agony".

A hospital consultant later told her the perforated bowel meant the organ had "effectively exploded and the whole contents of his bowel would have been emptied throughout his body".

Mr Rooney also has epilepsy, colitis and gout, and had recently been in and out of hospital.

On Sunday morning Ms Benson heard "an almighty scream" coming from her son's attic room.

After seeing "the panic setting over his face", she phoned for an ambulance.

Ms Benson said she explained her son's medical history and told the call handler he was hyperventilating, in agony and could not move.

After confirming he was breathing, lucid and could talk, she was told it would be a couple of hours before an ambulance could get to him due to ongoing pressures on the health service.

When Ms Benson responded that she needed an ambulance now, the call handler asked if she could take her son to hospital herself.

She said she could not because she had a two-door car, which would be extremely difficult for Mr Rooney to travel in given his level of pain, and her son's father could not drive at night because of his own health issues.

Ms Benson was told she would have to wait and to just give him painkillers.

"I was really traumatised after that call. It just beggared belief.

"My understanding of what a priority call is - if you have severe chest pains, you're prioritized, that's an emergency.

"In this case, because he was coming across lucid, that it wasn't deemed an emergency, and that was the end of that and it wasn't up for discussion," she said.

Ms Benson said her son started foaming at the mouth and coughing up blood, so she decided to try to bring him to hospital herself.

"I had to manhandle Brian downstairs. I felt awful.

"He was in agony and screaming at every move and turn of the stair," she said.

She got him down two flights of stairs and into her car.

At the doors of the emergency department her son collapsed.

She said security staff and then medical staff came out and "cut his shirt up and started to give him CPR because his heart had stopped".

Ms Benson said the consultant in the ED told her if they had not made it to the hospital when they did "we would be dealing with a corpse now".

She said she understood the pressures on the health service, but never thought, given her son's medical history, the ambulance wait would have been so long.

"They did say the ambulances that they did have, they couldn't leave the individuals that they were with, and one wouldn't be available for a few hours," added Ms Benson.

"That, to me, is communicating that we don't deem you an emergency."

Ms Benson said her son now faces an uncertain recovery.

As his intestine was removed during surgery, he will now use a stoma to collect waste.

She said his life has changed, with rehab and "potential complications like infections".

"All these things that perhaps, we don't know, could have been avoided if an ambulance had of come out in time when I rang."

Mr Rooney's case comes after reports of long waits in emergency departments over the winter period.

An emergency consultant at the Ulster Hospital said the situation there was "dire" and they are currently running significantly over capacity.

Dr Andrew Dobbin, who is clinical director of emergency medicine at the South Eastern Trust, told Good Morning Ulster that on Tuesday there were 690 patients for the hospital's 540 beds.

He said 100 of them were medically fit to leave hospital.

Out of the 690, 80 were on beds in corridors and another 70 were waiting for beds in the emergency department which only has 51 cubicles.

"There's a significant demand and capacity mismatch," he said.

Dr Dobbin also said that the low take up of the flu vaccine this year was a factor.

He said there were "crowded waiting rooms with vulnerable sick patients".

He added that that risk then passes on to the clinical staff who are working as well.

"We had eight of 16 doctors on the Monday evening shift phone in sick with flu-like illnesses," he said.

However, he added that the problems discharging patients from hospital along with how community and social care was delivered was also a big issue.

On Tuesday, the Assembly's health committee met to discuss the pressures in Northern Ireland's hospitals.