Palm Beach parents call for action after long ambulance delay for anaphylactic toddler

WHEN two-year-old Cleo started gasping for air after suffering an anaphylactic reaction, her parents called Triple-0. Seventeen minutes later they were still waiting for an ambulance that was only 4.9km away.

Little Cleo recovers at home after her ordeal.

THE family of a two-year-old Palm Beach girl who suffered a severe anaphylactic reaction on Saturday say they are “beyond furious” no ambulances were available to respond to their emergency.

Inez Addison said her daughter Cleo was “gasping for breath” when they first called Triple 0 at 11.48pm on Saturday night.

But 17 minutes later when no ambulance had arrived, she and her husband Alex called Triple 0 again only to be told “no ambulance was available in our area and it would be a minimum 15 minutes more”.

The couple, who are registered nurses, had thankfully administered two doses of adrenaline to their daughter, which probably helped save her life.

They drove the sick toddler to Mona Vale Hospital where she received immediate treatment and is recovering well.

But the incident has horrified the couple.

Inez Addison with her husband Alex, daughter Cleo, 2 and son Drake, 8.

“We’ve always had so much faith in the health system … we’re shattered,” Ms Addison said.

Their ordeal started shortly after 11.30pm when they found Cleo unable to breathe and making a “high-pitched rasping sound”.

The toddler is severely allergic to peanuts and egg whites but the family say they don’t know what triggered the attack.

While Ms Addison started to administer adrenaline through an EpiPen, her husband started giving their details to Triple 0.

The couple expected an ambulance to be immediately dispatched as the nearest station is just 4.9km away at Avalon.

“That should take six minutes without traffic,” Ms Addison said.

While they were waiting, little Cleo’s condition worsened as she failed to respond to the first dose of adrenaline.

“She was beyond distressed, she couldn’t cry. There was no air going in for her to cry,” Ms Addison said.

Fearful for her daughter’s life, she decided to administer a second EpiPen while her husband called Triple-0 for a second time.

Little Cleo is making a good recovery.

“He was then told there was nothing in our area and there wouldn’t be for at least 15 minutes.”

The family drove Cleo — who by then had started to respond to the second EpiPen dose — to Mona Vale Hospital where she was treated immediately with oral steroids and intravenous steroids.

Although Cleo is “bouncing back” Ms Addison is furious they were not told about the delay on the first Triple-0 call.

“If we had been informed on our first call that they could not respond we would have left for the hospital on our own then and not wasted 17 minutes,” she said.

She also understands that the ambulance that was dispatched to their home was in the St Ives area — 30 minutes away.

“I understand we live in an isolated area, but that isn’t an excuse,” she said.

She said she is not angry with paramedics who she said do an “amazing job”.

“This is about adequate resources to fund our ambulance system,” Ms Addison said. “Next time it will be somebody else.”

The state Liberal MP for Pittwater Rob Stokes said he was “very concerned to learn of the incident” and would be seeking further information from Health Minister Jillian Skinner.

A spokeswoman for NSW Ambulance apologised for the distress caused.

“NSW Ambulance always regrets a delayed response in reaching our patients,” she said.

“The response was correctly categorised as a 1C Priority lights and siren response. A paramedic was assigned at 23:53:21 and en-route to the patient at 23:58:00. At 00:08:55, while en-route to the patient, NSW Ambulance Triple Zero was advised by the caller that services were no longer required as they would self-transport the patient to Mona Vale Hospital.”