By Sara Dixon
The Express
DERBYSHIRE, U.K. — A woman paramedic has been accused of refusing to help a dying mother — because she was afraid to go into a pub alone.
Melissa Procter-Blain, 32, collapsed and died after suffering a heart attack.
Family and friends claim she was failed by the lone paramedic who they say refused to enter the Crown pub in Spondon, Derbyshire, because she said she felt intimidated.
They also claim that once the woman paramedic had been persuaded to go into the bar, she then refused to try to resuscitate the mother-of-three on her own.
One of the pub’s customers had to try and give life-saving help until other paramedics arrived.
Yesterday pub landlady Michelle Doherty, 34, who wants the paramedic disciplined, said: “We were waiting outside for the ambulance and saw the paramedic had parked down the road.
“A lad ran to tell her she was in the wrong place. He came back and said she wouldn’t come in, so my partner went to talk to her.
“She told him she wasn’t authorised to go into a pub alone and she would only come in if he could guarantee her safety.”
A friend of the victim claimed that when the paramedic entered the pub she looked at stricken Miss Procter-Blain, who was foaming at the mouth, and said she was not authorised to carry out CPR resuscitation on her own.
Customer Leanne Dono said: “I was talking to the 999 lady and she said I had to count Melissa’s breaths. I counted one, then there was a long gap, then I counted another. By the time I got to the fifth breath, her face had turned grey and there was foam coming out of her mouth. I told the lady on the phone I thought she was dead.
“That was when the paramedic came. I told her that the 999 lady was saying she should try to resuscitate Melissa but she said she couldn’t on her own, so my boyfriend Scott started doing CPR instead.
“It was horrible. Everyone was standing around and crying, but it wasn’t threatening. Everyone was just really upset.”
Miss Proctor-Blain, from Spondon, was dead on arrival at Derby Royal Infirmary on July 11.
East Midlands Ambulance Service logged the emergency call as category A — potentially immediately life-threatening.
Two vehicles were dispatched, a fast response car which arrived in six minutes and an ambulance which arrived in 10 minutes. A spokesman said the paramedic, on her own in the fast response car, took the life-saving kit from her vehicle into the pub but had described the atmosphere as tense and intimidating.
Miss Proctor-Blain’s stepfather John Page, who was with her when she died, said: “I had to stand there and watch the lights go out of my daughter’s eyes while this woman just stood there are refused to treat her.”
An Ambulance Service spokesman said it had launched an investigation immediately after receiving Mr Page’s complaint letter in July. He said: “Once we have completed our investigations, we will notify Mr and Mrs Page of the outcome.”
Miss Procter-Blain’s three children, aged 14, nine and four, are being cared for by John and her mother Diane.
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