Inquest into death of John Kennedy who died after going into cardiac arrest while waiting 23 minutes for an ambulance
The daughter of a man who died of cardiac arrest while waiting for an ambulance has told an inquest, into her father’s death, that the family wants justice.
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The daughter of a man who died of a cardiac arrest after waiting 23 minutes for an ambulance said he was let down and they want justice.
John Douglas Kennedy, 65, was incorrectly assigned as a Priority 2 case despite suffering from severe chest pains.
Opening the inquest on Tuesday, counsel assisting, Darren Evans told the court Mr Kennedy worked as a teacher before he settled in Mount Barker and commenced a real estate business.
The court heard Mr Kennedy woke up around midnight in April 2020 and told his wife, Dianne to call an ambulance because he was having “severe chest pains”.
In a triple-0 call that was played to the court, the operator could be heard telling Mrs Kennedy that an ambulance crew was on its way, even though one hadn’t been dispatched yet.
Mr Kennedy’s case was assigned Priority 2, which has a target time frame of 16 minutes.
Emergency operation centre dispatcher Tina Lynch spoke to a paramedic crew at the Mount Barker Hospital who were only minutes away from Mr Kennedy’s address.
However, paramedic Dean Wilson told her there was a “quite crook” patient there that needed to be transported to another hospital.
Ms Lynch then assigned Mr Kennedy’s case to a crew at Stirling, who arrived at 12.43am, 23 minutes after the initial call.
By this time, Mr Kennedy was in cardiac arrest and CPR was commenced.
Mr Kennedy was transported to Mount Barker hospital where CPR continued until 2.08am where a MedSTAR doctor declared Mr Kennedy deceased.
A pathology review concluded that Mr Kennedy’s cause of death was ischaemic heart disease on a background of hypertension.
Cardiologist William Heddle concluded Mr Kennedy should have been assigned as Priority 1 and his death would have been prevented if an ambulance had arrived within that target time frame of eight minutes.
Giving evidence, Ms Lynch told the court she made the decision to task the first crew to the patient at the Mount Barker hospital instead of Mr Kennedy because at the time the hospital had limited resources.
However, when asked by Mr Evans if a patient at a hospital was in a “vastly better position” than a person in the community presumed to be having a heart attack, Ms Lynch replied yes.
She also accepted that she should have tasked the Stirling crew to the patient at the hospital and the Mount Barker crew to Mr Kennedy.
The court heard Mount Barker now had two fully staffed paramedic crews at night instead of one.
“It is much easier to resource jobs in Mount Barker now than five years ago,” Ms Lynch said.
Outside court, Mr Kennedy’s daughter, Kristen De Gilio told media they hoped the inquest brought justice for her dad.
“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” she said.
“We’ve lost our best friend, a grandfather, father, husband.”
Ms De Gilio said it was hard listening to her mother being constantly reassured in the triple-0 call that an ambulance was on its way when it wasn’t.
“We were let down, my father was let down and he paid for it with his life,” she said.
The inquest before Deputy State Coroner Naomi Kereu continues.
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