Thunderstorm asthma death: Victim had code downgraded, inquest hears
A WOMAN who died in a horrific thunderstorm asthma outbreak had her priority code downgraded by authorities before she died on the front lawn of her Hoppers Crossing home waiting for an ambulance, a court has heard.
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A WOMAN who died in a horrific thunderstorm asthma outbreak had her ambulance priority downgraded by authorities before her tragic death, a court has heard.
As an inquest into the deadly weather event comes to a close, a senior officer on Friday told the Melbourne Coroners Court ambulance staff moved a victim from a Priority 0 code to Priority 1 before medical attention had arrived.
A Priority 0 case is the highest urgency for paramedics in Victoria’s dispatch system, allowing authorities to send paramedics to the most pressing incidents.
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Thousands of Victorians were hospitalised and 10 people died on November 21, 2016, when a high pollen count, combined with strong winds, created a nightmare situation for asthmatics.
Inspector-General for Emergency Management senior officer Christopher Petty on Friday said staff working through the outbreak changed the response code for Hope Marsh, also known as Hope Carnevali, after learning she suffered from asthma.
“(Dispatchers) reconfigured the event type from inefficient breathing to inefficient breathing with asthma,” Mr Petty told the court. “That had the effect of downgrading the priority from 0 to 1.”
Law student Ms Marsh, 20, died on the front lawn of her Hoppers Crossing home waiting for an ambulance.
Over the past month the inquest has investigated the handling of the freak weather event by the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority in a bid to learn how the system could be improved.
Mr Petty said emergency services were so overwhelmed by an unprecedented surge in calls across Melbourne’s west there had been no ambulances available at times.
“The calls didn’t stop for several hours,” he said.
“There were delays for Priority 0 (cases) as well as Priority 1.”
“The target time is that ESTA will attempt to answer (calls) in five seconds … in some cases the response was (in) 118 seconds.”
Earlier this month the court heard three of the people who died from thunderstorm asthma that day waited more than 30 minutes for an ambulance.
More than 1300 calls were made in the space of two hours, with hospital presentations that day up by 49 per cent compared to the week before.
Coroner Paresa Spanos will hand down her findings by late October.