Grieving family blames Premier for Eddie’s death in ambulance queue

The family of a man who died during an agonising 10-hour wait for an ambulance says the buck stops with the Premier after his promise to fix ramping.

The family of disabled man known as Eddie who died after a 10-hour wait for an ambulance have hit out at the Premier during an Opposition-hosted press conference.

Eddie, 54, of Hectorville had abdominal pains and was initially diagnosed as a low priority patient. After 10 hours, he was upgraded to the Priority 1 and an ambulance arrived within four minutes of the final call but it was too late.

The furious family say the “gentle giant” died as a result of Premier Peter Malinauskas’s failure to fix ramping.

Authorities say SA Police informed Eddie’s mother of the death on the day he died, December 27.

His Aunt Brenda and Uncle Steve say his mother Patricia, 82, later was traumatised to unexpectedly see a photo of Eddie as she watched the TV news with her brother Steve as it had not been given to the TV station with her permission.

She needed hospital care as a result of her son’s tragic death and ongoing stress but has since been discharged.

“She is absolutely broken,“ Aunt Brenda said.

Uncle Steve said Eddie was “an eternal child” who could not speak, so could not describe his increasing agony as the wait for the ambulance dragged on while he deteriorated and began vomiting.

“It must have been like going through hell,” he said.

Eddie died after 10 hours waiting for an ambulance.

Eddie’s family say Premier Peter Malinauskas has failed to keep his promise to fix ramping. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Roy VanDerVegt

“Eddie was a gentle giant,” Aunt Brenda said. “He was a kid and was always going to be a kid.” Uncle Steve added: “He was a great kid, but he was also a man and should have been treated with dignity and respect.”

The family say they have not heard from Premier Peter Malinauskas or SA Health although SA Ambulance Service says it has contacted Eddie’s mother.

They say Mr Malinauskas’ public condolences were “insensitive“ and treated Eddie as “just another statistic”.

Aunt Brenda said: “We are very disappointed in Mr Malinauskas, for someone to wait 10 hours for an ambulance when it should’ve been 60 minutes – you’ve got a 10-hour window.

“Mr Malinauskas, you promised South Australians you were going to fix ramping. You have failed. Eddie is another statistic and we are here today to make someone responsible.

“Someone needs to step up to the mark and take account for what you have done. We don’t want another family to go through this.

“We don’t want any more deaths. Fix the ramping, fix the health system you promised to fix

“You have been in power for two years … and people are dying on your watch.

“Wake up Mr Malinauskas, this is your fault. Fix it, the buck stops with you.”

Uncle Steve claimed the Premier is “more interested in events than people and the anguish they are going through”.

Opposition Leader David Speirs and opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn at Parliament House with Eddie’s aunt Brenda and uncle Steve. Picture: Ben Clark

Aunt Brenda said the family needs to grieve and lay Eddie to rest.

“Eddie should be here today but he is not because our health system failed him, our hospitals failed him, our ambulances and Mr Malinauskas failed him,” she said.

“We want answers to what happened to Eddie and we want action, we don’t want bloody words.”

The family is so disillusioned with Labor’s failure to “fix” ramping they approached the Liberal Party for support to air their views at a media conference in the hope it would spur action, so no other family endures their anguish.

Opposition Leader David Speirs said Mr Malinauskas “frightened” people into voting Labor by saying “Vote Labor like your life depends on it.”

“That turned out to be a fraud,” he said. “Nearly two years on from the election ramping has never been worse.

“The consequences of Labor failing to deliver are truly heartbreaking.”

Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said the previous Liberal government faced the task of “turning around the Titanic of Transforming Health” and reopening the Repat.

A government spokesman said: “Our thoughts are of course with Eddie’s family at this time.

“Senior SA Ambulance staff spoke with Eddie’s mother over the phone on Monday and offered her an in-person meeting with the reviewers of Eddie’s case, including SA Ambulance’s chief medical adviser Dr Amy Keir.

“SAAS is following up again with Eddie’s mother today to try and confirm a time for this meeting. The reviewers will make themselves available to speak with Eddie’s aunt and uncle.

“One of the issues the review will examine is the circumstance of the triage of Eddie’s case as a Category 5. Once the case was upgraded to a Category 1 an ambulance arrived in four minutes.

“While we have already invested billions of dollars in improving the health system, we know much more needs to be done with more doctors, nurses, paramedics and hospital beds being hired and built.”

The Ambulance Employees Association says there was significant ramping across all metropolitan hospitals with all emergency departments operating above capacity at the time.

“Due to significant ramping, ambulances were stuck at hospitals instead of being available for the community.”