Who Would Want To Be a Paramedic!!

The heartbroken widow of a Stafford man who died from a heart attack moments after a paramedic said his symptoms could be indigestion has vowed to try and get disciplinary action taken against the medic. Anne-Marie Kirkland says her husband Richard’s last words were “I feel stupid for calling them now”, after his fears about his chest pain were “dismissed” during the emergency call-out.

Mrs Kirkland said Richard, aged 36, had all the “classic” symptoms of a heart attack - including chest pain, sickness, breathing difficulties and shooting pains down his arms - but the Staffordshire Ambulance worker told him to take “paracetamol and Gaviscon” and go the bed.The father-of-three then climbed the stairs and collapsed and died in the bathroom. Mrs Kirkland, 31, only found out he had died from a heart attack following a post mortem. She said the Community Paramedic Officer (CPO) who visited their Brackendale Drive home, in Parkside, carried out an electrocardiograph (ECG) test. Mrs Kirkland, who has three children Tom 11, Will, nine and Daisy, three, says if her husband had been given oxygen and not walked up the stairs, his life could have been saved. She said: “When the paramedic left, Richard said he felt stupid for calling them - that’s the last thing he said to me. He went up to the bathroom. I heard him yell out and then a thud. It was horrific.”

Mrs Kirkland says the ambulance service told her the paramedic in question has received “retraining” which she says is not good enough. Staffordshire Ambulance Service spokesman Bob Lee said the case was taken “most seriously” by the trust. “Like any patient, if Mrs Kirkland is dissatisfied with the response, she has the right to take it up with the NHS complaints procedure.”