Stewart Grant died in horrific circumstances as desperate calls for paramedics went unanswered

Grieving relatives of a man who died after waiting 40 minutes for an ambulance say they feel abandoned, while Daniel Andrews has blamed the pandemic for growing strain on ambos.

Premier Daniel Andrews has continued to blame the pandemic for over-run emergency services in the wake of the tragic death of Stewart Grant.

Mr Grant’s grieving wife told of the horror of watching her husband die after he waited 40 minutes for an ambulance.

“I’m sorry, they’re not coming,” were the haunting final words grieving wife Carol Grant said to her husband Stewart, who died moments later, as their desperate calls for paramedics went unanswered.

Stewart Grant with wife Carol and grandson Jed.

Mr Grant waited 40 minutes for an ambulance.

Mr Grant’s grieving family, who are struggling with their loss, say the “horrific and traumatic ordeal” on January 29 should never have happened, believing he would be alive had paramedics arrived quicker than the 40 minutes it took them.

The 82-year-old Cowes man had been experiencing breathing difficulties due to early onset emphysema.

His daughter, Lisa Hennessy, said her mother, 75, immediately phoned triple-0 at 12.32pm and described Stewart’s distressing condition.

“He was struggling to breathe and Mum was having trouble waking him up,” Ms Hennessy said.

“She called the ambulance, but they refused to send one. The female call taker said they would have someone call her back and tell her what to do.

“But Mum urged the call taker that Dad was having trouble breathing and the call taker responded: ‘What do you mean?’. How could she even ask that question?”

Ms Hennessy revealed the haunting final moments of her father’s life, saying nobody deserved to die that way.

“Mum went back into the bedroom and said ‘I’m sorry, they’re not coming’. These were her final words to him, and he went to sleep and never woke up. So, he died knowing there was no help coming.”

Carol Grant called triple-0 as her husband was struggling to breathe. Picture: Mark Stewart

Ms Hennessy said when paramedics called her mother back at 12.44pm, they asked Ms Grant to see if she could wake up her husband. She responded that she couldn’t.

“They then asked my Mum to lift him out of bed herself and start CPR,” she said.

When the first ambulance crew arrived at 1.12pm, Mr Grant was pronounced dead and the decision was made to cease resuscitation.

“This should never have happened. No family deserves to go through this,” Ms Hennessy said. “I believe that he would be alive today had the ambulance come sooner, and we are angry with the first operator who handled the call.

“We feel abandoned. The government is incompetent. They’ve had two years during the pandemic to hire additional ambulance and health workers, but the situation is only getting worse and the hospitals are banked up.”

On Thursday Mr Andrews said: “This matter has been reviewed by Ambulance Victoria and where appropriate I’m sure the coroner will be part of this process if they haven’t already”.

“Pre-pandemic we had the best response time since response times were recorded, but this global pandemic has made the job of our ambos really tough.

“They are all working as hard as they can. Any time a patient dies I know that is carried by our paramedics – they’re part of it as well and feel it very heavily.

“But this global pandemic and the sheer volume of patients that have needed an ambulance has sadly put very significant pressure on the system.”

Health Minister Martin Foley confirmed ESTA was at fault for the 40-minute delay.

“I understand the issue wasn’t so much the dispatch of the ambulance once it was dispatched, the paramedics were there, and indeed other volunteers in the nearby community were there once the call was distributed,” Mr Foley said.

“The issue goes to the ETSA end of things – how did the call make its way through.

“It would not be appropriate for me to publicly comment whilst those investigations are underway.

“What we need to do is allow those investigations to establish precisely what happened and make any learnings that will come from that.”

Stewart Grant. Picture: Mark Stewart

In a letter to Ms Hennessy, Ambulance Victoria said it was clear the organisation “did not meet expectations on this occasion”. It said: “Due to the information the call taker rec­eived regarding your father’s condition, the call was coded for a response within 30 minutes. Your mother was advised to call triple-0 back if your father’s condition changed.

“Due to a high volume of calls at the time, a call back was made at 12.44pm and a triage practitioner quickly determin­ed that your father had deteriorated and an ambulance was dispatched for an urgent code one light-and-sirens response.”

The letter also specified the “closest available ambulance was dispatched from 40km away”. An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said: “We have undertaken a review of the incident to better understand exactly what happened and why. We have informed the family of the outcomes of this review.”

Ms Hennessy said she lodged the complaint with Ambulance Victoria in the hope that their ordeal could be urgently reviewed.

“If a kid was drowning on the beach, what would happen? There’s more people in Phillip Island than there are in the City of Melbourne at Christmas time,” she said. “I just had to lodge the complaint so they would know the severity of the situation.”

She said her father’s memory was honoured at his funeral on February 3.

“He was an ex-serviceman who spent many years in the air force, where he met my Mum,” Ms Hennessy said.

“He was a Saints fan and enjoyed watching his grandson play football. This has been a traumatic ordeal for us all.”

Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said Mr Grant’s death was an “awful tragedy”.

“This highlights the lack of resources that are available,” he said.

“Often in rural Victoria and in areas like Melbourne or major regional centres, if the nearest ambulance is not available, then one comes from further away, but normally they would still be within a reasonable time frame. But by that time, with that distance, often the patient can’t be saved.”

Brighton Liberal MP James Newbury, who was contacted by Ms Hennessy after he spoke out about other ambulance incidents, said the health system was in crisis.

“Many Victorians are waiting in excruciating pain for urgent surgery and, tragically, some have died waiting for an ambulance,” he said.

A government spokesman said: “We’ve taken steps to reduce call times immediately at ESTA, including extra funding for more than 40 additional call takers, dispatchers and mental health support staff, and for extra shifts.”

UNION SLAMS CRITICAL TRIPLE-0 CALL DELAYS

The head of Victoria’s ambulance union has slammed triple-0 call delays after 20 people who had been desperately waiting to speak to paramedics were kept on hold for up to five minutes.

Danny Hill said Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority workers had raised concerns over the lengthy delays experienced by triple-0 callers on Saturday, February 12.

It comes after the Herald Sun revealed last year former top cop Graham Ashton would head a review into ESTA’s capabilities. That review comes in the wake of reports two people suffering cardiac arrests died after their triple-0 calls went unanswered for five minutes.

“ESTA had 20 calls on hold with only 15 ambulance call-takers logged into the system across the state and many of those callers waited up to five minutes,” Mr Hill said.

“Our members have been raising the delays for many years, but in particular since May 2021 when those numbers started to grow up to two-minute time frames before calls were answered.

“It’s been almost a year later and now we’re still seeing those sorts of occurrences, but even much worse and we’re not talking just one or two cases of this, this is 20 people that have felt the need to call an ambulance and are waiting before their call was even picked up.”

He said ESTA needed to urgently increase the minimum number of ambulance call-takers to at least 30.

“We called some time ago for ambulance call-takers to be doubled. Unfortunately what we’re only seeing is new staff start to trickle through,” he said. “As a result of this being left so late, we’re really not seeing the staffing there because it takes a long time to increase the staffing to that sort of level.”

Mr Hill said the surge in triple-0 calls was not a one-off occurrence.

“These are not like a thunderstorm asthma-type event, this is just the typical workload that we have in Victoria and the lack of appropriate numbers to cope with that,” he said.

“There’s other work that needs to be done to refine the call-taking and dispatch system, to make sure ambulances are only being dispatched to cases that genuinely require an ambulance, and part of that goes towards community education.”

ESTA has recruited 43 new full-time equivalent call-taking, dispatch and other staff in 2021-22, after a funding boost in the 2021-22 state budget.

All of these recruits are either on board or about to finish their training, including 13 who will take up call-taking positions and 16 ambulance dispatchers.