Inside story on how a heart attack patient is driven past busy hospital only to be sent back
A Gold Coast volunteer has recounted his remarkable tale in which he went from saving a bloke from the water to his own terrifying hospital trip. READ THE REPORT
Gold Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gold Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
VOLUNTEER Marine Rescue leader Pat Reynolds is saving a bloke from the water at Jacobs Well when he feels the familiar twinge.
What he cannot foresee is himself being in danger. His life will be put at risk due to the Gold Coast hospital ambulance ramping crisis.
He thinks about talking to paramedics after he hauls the boatie to safety. Perhaps it was something he has eaten. The next morning, on the Monday preparing for work, he senses the worst.
The ambos respond quickly to the call, arrive just before 8am. But they wait for maybe 20 minutes. The chest pains, which troubled the 56-year-old real estate agent, migrate to the shoulders and jaw.
More calls to the “radio room” and talk about which hospital to take him.
“Wouldn’t it be Gold Coast (University Hospital),” Mr Reynolds tells them. “Yeah, that’s what we are hoping,” replies the ambo.
Then the team leader tells him: “We need to go now. Sorry, but we are going to Robina Hospital. We are on bypass from Gold Coast University Hospital.”
Mr Reynolds nods and watches as they drive by the Coast’s largest hospital.
At Robina, several nurses attend to him. A senior doctor studies the angiogram. He holds some paper work, just printed out. “I’ve arranged transport,” he says.
Mr Reynolds is confused. “You are going straight to the Gold Coast Hospital,” the doctor says. “There is a cardiac team on standby. You are having a major event.”
Someone less senior explains. “You are having a massive heart attack.
Mr Reynolds remains calm. “So it’s not indigestion?,” he asks the staff member.
He’s on oxygen, the anti-clotting medication begins pumping in. Two cannulas are inserted. He feels “a little spaced out”.
Someone asks him for a “next-of-kin contact”. For the first time, he starts to panic. “I’m in real trouble here,” he whispers to himself.
The doctor tells him: “I can’t understand why they brought you here. We don’t have the equipment to do the procedures.”
Mr Reynolds replies: “You do what you have to do. Get me fixed.”
Medical staff around him are saying “time is of the essence”.
Back in the ambulance, a nurse and doctor are on board. Lights and sirens, all the way back to the university hospital, almost 23km on congested roads. Straight into theatre, a stent in one of his arteries.
The next day a surgeon delivers the news. Their major concern was a blood clot near the artery blockage, travelling up to his brain.
“You were close to a major fatal stroke,” the surgeon says.
Mr Reynolds is a regular Bulletin reader. He ran for Division 1 in the council poll in 2020. He is aware of the latest research reports showing half of the people taken to the university hospital wait in an ambulance before receiving treatment.
On that Wednesday, on January 13, he became the face of those statistics. This week he emerged after another series of tests. He can walk forward, confident about a return to strong health.
“I cannot fault the staff, the ambulance staff or the Gold Coast university and Robina hospitals. They’re the people on the front line. But there is something horrible going on that these things are occurring. I’m only one. I’m lucky. I survived.”
APRIL - Government refuses to divulge location of new Coast satellite hospital
THE state government is refusing to provide any details on the city’s newest hospital, months after it was pitched as a key promise at the state election.
Budget papers after the 2020 poll indicated only $1.6 million had been allocated for the $265 million cost of seven satellite hospitals, with no indication when any of the facilities would be opened or the number of beds.
In October, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the locations of the hospitals would be determined after extensive community consultation.
“A satellite hospital on the Gold Coast will be tailored to the needs of the community and will include ambulatory and low acuity day therapy services such as renal dialysis, chemotherapy, complex wound management, and urgent care for minor injury and illness,” the Premier said at the time.
FULL DIGITAL ACCESS: JUST $1 FOR FIRST 28 DAYS
The Bulletin has longed campaigned for greater hospital services in the city. The emergency department at Gold Coast University Hospital is the busiest in the country and the population boom is putting increasing pressure on services.
Previous Bulletin investigations have also revealed bed numbers in the Coast’s public hospitals were below national guidelines.
Before the election, the government said a $40 million satellite hospital would be placed in Tugun.
However, in answering questions by Currumbin MP Laura Gerber about where it would go, when it would be open and what the $40 million would be spent on, Health Minister Yvette D’Ath responded: “The Palaszczuk government is committed to delivering free, world-class health care to all Queenslanders no matter where they live.
“Now, in our third term in government, we will continue to deliver on our commitments to ensure every Queenslander continues to benefit from better health services and better health facilities.”
Ms D’Ath confirmed Labor’s 2020 election commitments included a suite of seven new satellite hospitals.
“Following the election, Queensland Health has commenced work on scoping out the full details of this commitment including time frames. That detail will be available in due course.”
Ms Gerber said she had no idea where the new major health facility would be located in her electorate.
“The Queensland Labor Government is already back-pedalling faster than a duck on water,” Ms Gerber told the Bulletin.
“Labor unequivocally promised a new satellite hospital in Tugun only four months ago as part
of their 2020 election campaign, but the government’s latest spin casts doubt that locals
will ever see a satellite hospital in Tugun.
“I asked the Minister where in Tugun the satellite hospital will be located and the Minister’s
response deliberately skirted my question.
“Our community deserves the highest level of healthcare, not more broken promises. I repeat my calls for the Labor Government to honour their commitments.”
First look: New Gold Coast train station design revealed
Commuters have been given their first look at the final design of a new Gold Coast train station, where construction is already well underway. SEE THE PICTURES
Rescue operation after teenager falls 20m into creek
A teenager has been seriously injured after falling 20m into a Gold Coast creek, with efforts by emergency services to get him out complicated by “difficult terrain”. LATEST