Woman dies after map glitch sends QAS crew to wrong address

Stephen Couder cradled his wife Diane in his arms as she died while they waited for an ambulance crew. Sadly, it was not an isolated case.

Stephen Couder called triple-0 for his wife Diane last year in dire need of an ambulance, and in the 21 minutes before paramedics arrived she died in his arms.

The Couders’ experience was one of at least 20 cases detailed in an ­explosive QAS dossier of “Significant Incident Reviews” where “high” workloads, hospital delays or staff shortages were mentioned when paramedics were delayed getting to a patient.

An internal Queensland Ambulance review revealed the crew had initially been sent to the wrong ­address due to a glitch in the map not recognising the home as being in Loganlea – just five minutes from Logan Hospital.

Stephen Couder at home in Loganlea. Picture: Steve Pohlner

But it was also a “busy time of night” on February 21, 2021, with “multiple cases pending and limited available resources”, so the initial crew was dispatched from New­market and would take 20 minutes to get to the Couders’.

“It’s something that I’ll never ­recover from, but it’s something that I should have never seen,” Mr Couder said.

“I should have never seen what I saw on that night. She may have passed away anyway, but because of the misdirection, she had absolutely no chance of survival whatsoever, and that’s what depresses me.”

Mr Couder and his wife Diane had been together for 46 years and had moved to Loganlea from Emerald in 2016 in order to be closer to the health services she needed for end-stage renal failure.

Diane Couder died at her Loganlea home waiting for an ambulance.

Mr Couder called triple-0 at 11.26pm as Ms Couder had trouble breathing, and the QAS logs show that the case was put in the queue and there was a “delay in response due to workload”, and again at 11.30pm as “delay in dispatch due to workload”.

The priority of the case was ­upgraded once Ms Couder lost consciousness and the first crew, that had been dispatched from Logan Hospital, arrived at 11.47pm to find Mr Couder “distraught” and “lying next to the patient and was reluctant to move”.

Mr Couder said the paramedics who attended that night and on other occasions had been “extremely professional, polite and got the job done”, but he lamented a “broken” health system.

“It’s hard for me to accept that our public health system can’t be adequately funded, yet in excess of $1bn can easily be found to give a sporting venue a facelift,” he said.