By Donna Macallister
The Aberdeen Press and Journal
DUFFTOWN, Scotland — The family of a young woman who had a heart attack and died are demanding an inquiry after an ambulance driver refused to respond to a 999 call because he was having a cup of tea.
Relief technician Owen McLauchlan “chose” not to go to Mandy Mathieson’s aid after she was taken ill just “two minutes away” from his depot while he was on a break.
An ambulance crew had to drive 15 miles from Grantown to Tomintoul - a journey which took 21 minutes.
When they arrived Miss Mathieson’s partner Bobby Taylor was trying to resuscitate the 33-year-old, and an air ambulance had been scrambled. The helicopter reached the scene almost half an hour after the initial call.
Miss Mathieson was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr McLauchlan has been suspended from his job with the Scottish Ambulance Service, and the dead woman’s uncle said last night that the community had been left “disgusted” by the incident.
Charlie Skene, 53, is making a complaint to Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the ambulance service.
Yesterday locals gathered to stage a protest outside the ambulance depot in Tomnabat Lane - just 800 yards from Miss Mathieson’s Stewart Place home.
Mr Taylor, 29, arrived back from work to find his partner of six years still in bed and not breathing. The ambulance service received his 999 call at 12.45pm. The control centre in Inverness made contact with Mr McLauchlan, 23, and asked him to attend.
Part-time Tomintoul ambulance driver Shirley Keith, 43, was also on duty on the day.
She was at home in Conglass Lane when Mr McLauchlan, who is based at Dufftown but is originally from Linlithgow, took the call from the control centre.
She said: “I heard the air ambulance going over my house. I went running out of the house and I noticed an ambulance at Mandy’s house at the bottom of the road.
“I came back in and phoned the station. I said ‘Owen what’s going on? There’s an air ambulance at the bottom of my road’. His exact words were ‘Shirley, you’re not going to like what I’m about to say. They shouted me on my break but I refused to go’.”
Mrs Keith, who has not gone back to work since the incident on October 16 and has also lodged a complaint with the ambulance service, added: “I was totally numb with disbelief, I just hung up the phone. We may not have been able to make a difference to Mandy but we were only two minutes away from her and he’s got all the equipment, including a defibrillator, in the back of the ambulance. When Mandy really needed help he let her down. That is so wrong.”
Miss Mathieson died after suffering a blood clot.
Her late grandfather, also Charlie Skene, was the village’s ambulance driver for many years and campaigned for a dedicated vehicle. Her sister, Michelle Fernie, 39, of Main Street, Tomintoul, is a technician for the ambulance service and her 41-year-old husband Keith is a paramedic. Miss Mathieson’s uncle, Charlie Skene, of Stewart Place, said last night the family and the community had been “badly let down”. He said: “My father fought for years for a full-time service for Tomintoul. We’re disgusted that the service has come to this. We’ve just been so badly let down. You’re supposed to be working to preserve someone’s life.”
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said: “On October 16 we received a 999 call for a cardiac emergency in Tomintoul at 12.45pm.
“The technician on duty in Tomintoul was on a rest break and chose not to respond. An ambulance crew was dispatched from Grantown-on-Spey and arrived on scene within 21 minutes, followed by an air ambulance helicopter eight minutes later. Unfortunately, the patient did not survive the cardiac arrest and our thoughts are with her family at this difficult time. We have asked the Health Professions Council to consider the ambulance technician’s decision-making and have suspended the individual while this consideration takes place.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Clearly we would expect the service to undertake an investigation into the circumstances to examine whether procedures were properly followed and if there are any lessons to be learned.”
Peat merchant Andy Keith, 45, of Conglass Lane, claimed one of Tomintoul’s three ambulance drivers, who resigned in July, had not yet been replaced.
Mr McLauchlan could not be contacted last night.
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