Cath Groom’s sister calls for Palaszczuk government to invest in hospitals over Olympics
The sister of a Brisbane mum who died waiting for an ambulance says the Queensland government needs to make hospital funding a priority over the Olympics.
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The sister of a Brisbane woman who died waiting for an ambulance says the Queensland government should spend on hospitals instead of the Olympics as she recalls the “despair” on her nephew’s face after he found his mum dead.
Cath Groom, was found dead in her bed by her son, Nicholas, on November 18 – what would have been her 52nd birthday – after she had complained of chest pains the night before.
Her sister, Bec McQuilty, told A Current Affair that Cath was vomiting profusely the night before, which were classic signs of a heart attack.
“Nicholas quickly called triple-0,” Ms McQuilty said.
“He called multiple times, over an hour and a half and nobody showed up.
“For a young boy to have to see his mum like that, it just shouldn’t happen, he was petrified, he didn’t know what to do.
“He’s been taught all his life that you can rely on all these people, and to make a phone call to triple-0 and them not be there for him when they should’ve been is just blatant neglect.”
Ms McQuilty said if the ambulance had shown up, her sister might have survived.
“There is no excuse, there is no reasoning for it, it’s just that’s the fact, if they had shown up, if they had’ve had the resources and are spending money on ambulances, and hospitals instead of focusing what they could do for the Olympic Games,” she said.
“Put some more money into our hospital system and our health system. It’s too late for my family, but maybe that can save somebody else.”
Ms McQuilty said Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had never contacted her and “that just speaks volumes”.
“I want changes made, its just complete negligence and its just not OK,” she said.
Ms McQuilty said the day they found her sister dead in the bed was one the family would never forget.
“I will never forget the look on Nicholas’ face – just absolute despair – and he didn’t want me to go inside but I had to go and make sure of what he was saying was true,” she said.
“You just think sometimes is there anything I can do. It was just very evident obviously that when I got in there with her there was absolutely nothing I can do.”
Ms McQuilty said her mother was having a hard time dealing with what had happened.
“She will never come back from this,” she said.
“On that Saturday morning, she herself was taken to the ER from just complete shock and her own heart.
“I have my sister deceased in the house, I have my mum in the ER. No family, should have to go through what our family has gone through.”
The morning before she started feeling the pain, Ms Groom was celebrating her Nicholas’ graduation.
“On Friday morning, we are at school celebrating his graduation from high school and literally 24 hours later he’s finding his mother deceased unnecessarily,” she said.
“He’s numb, he’s angry and he’s got a really long road ahead of him.
“It had been such a long road with his dad passing when he was just a baby.
“Cath was our family support raising him to get to such an incredible point of his high school graduation and to be so proud of him on that day. I could see it in her face that she was just so proud.”
A full clinical review is under way to find out what happened.
QAS commissioner Craig Emery said this week that the initial investigation revealed the way the call was handed was appropriated.
He confirmed Ms Groom had called triple-0 at 10.26pm on Friday, November 17 complaining of chest pains from her Forest Lake home.
The call was “immediately prioritised” as an emergency incident Code 1C – where a likely life-threatening situation is considered “potential time critical” – but an ambulance was not dispatched straight away.
Then at 11.53pm, Nicholas cancelled the ambulance with Ms Groom wanting to go to bed to try and get help in the morning.
Mr Emery said there were about 80-100 other responses made in the Brisbane-West Moreton area that night with paramedics hit with a “significant period of surge”.
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