Eddie from Hectorville identified as the man left to die for 10 hours in Adelaide ramping horror

The 54-year-old who died in excruciating pain after waiting more than 10 hours for an ambulance has been described as a “beautiful man”.

The man who died in agony after waiting more than 10 hours for an ambulance can be revealed as a 54-year-old disabled man known as Eddie, as a political storm over ramping escalates.

A floral tribute sat at the front door of the assisted living house in Hectorville, run by not-for-profit NDIS provider Lighthouse Disability, where Eddie lived, on Friday.

Eddie’s former carer of eight years Kym Hoskins described him as a “gentle giant” and a “beautiful man”.

“All frontline workers, in disability and age care, constantly live with the fear that we will be in this situation and, due to the lack of resources and support, our most vulnerable members of the community will pay the ultimate price. RIP Eddie,” they told 9News,

In a statement, Lighthouse Disability said it was “deeply saddened by the passing of one of our clients”.

Eddie, 54, from Hectorville died waiting for an ambulance 10 hours after a triple zero call was first made. Picture: 9News

“With respect, we do not wish to make any further public comment.”

Lighthouse Disability’s website states the service works “alongside adults living with complex and diverse disabilities across North and North Eastern Adelaide to provide individualised support to live their life”.

There were three calls made from the Eddie’s Hectorville home on December 27 — he was first listed by a phone operator as the lowest priority category 5, then in the last call went to the top priority category 1 with an ambulance arriving within four minutes.

On Friday, Premier Peter Malinauskas defended his government’s failure to “fix”ramping.

Mr Malinauskas said he would feel more confident calling an ambulance for his family now than two years ago.

“If we had not employed the additional 500 clinicians the situation would be a lot worse,” he said.

Opposition leader David Speirs on Friday called for Health Minister Chris Picton to resign.

“Chris Picton must resign and, if he won’t, Peter Malinauskas must show health is still apriority and sack him,” Mr Speirs said.

Mr Picton is currently on paternity leave.

Both sides of government now admit deaths have occurred due to delays, claims now subject to a review.

On Thursday is was revealed the SA Ambulance Service has commenced a review and SA Health is expanding a review that now finds clinicians and ambulance officers arguing over who gets priority.

The Ambulance Employees Association that ran an aggressive election against the previous Liberal government over ramping says there was significant ramping across all metropolitan hospitals with all emergency departments operating above capacity.

“Tragically on that night a 54-year-old male in Hectorville passed away after waiting over 10 hours for an ambulance,” a union statement says.

Three calls were made from Eddie’s home. Picture: 9News

Flowers left outside Eddie's home in Hectorville on Friday morning. Picture: Zayda Dollie

“The AEA understands that the triple-0 call was for abdominal pain and vomiting and the case was initially triaged as an Urgent Priority 5 requiring an ambulance to attend within 60 minutes. Due to significant ramping, ambulances were stuck at hospitals instead of being available for the community.”

SA Ambulance chief executive Rob Elliott said an ambulance arrived within four minute of the final call.
Mr Elliott said there were operational pressures on the night. The incident has been reported to SA Police.

SA Health chief executive Robyn Lawrence stressed staff do not tell clinicians to “offload patients who are of lower acuity”.

The ambulance union’s Josh Karpowicz said long delays in ambulance responses meant “by the time an ambulance arrived for this patient, he had passed away”.

The union’s campaign over ramping previously included daubing ambulances with protests slogans which ceased on the election of Premier Peter Malinauskas’ Labor government with a core pledge to “fix” ramping.

Under Labor’s tenure, ramping has soared to almost triple the hours of the last month of the Marshall government, hitting 4285 hours of ambulances in hospital car parks in November.

It fell to 3595 hours in December.