Grieving Pakenham says Victoria’s ambulance crisis needs urgent fix

A grieving Pakenham dad who watched his daughter die while waiting for an ambulance fears Victoria’s health crisis will cause a similar tragedy for another family.

Bernard and Corine Anseline lost 14-year-old daugher Lydia while waiting for an ambuulance. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

A grieving father has told of the horror of watching his daughter die after she waited more than 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

“Dad, I love you,” were the final words 14-year-old Lydia Anseline, who attended Pakenham Secondary College, said to her dad Bernard, before she died moments later, as their desperate calls for paramedics went unanswered on April 13.

Mr Anseline, from Pakenham, whose family including his wife Corine and three sons Samuel, 23, Noah, 20, and Leon, 12, are struggling with the unimaginable loss of their daughter and sister, believes Victoria’s ESTA and ambulance crisis needs to be fixed “urgently”, saying he fears the tragedy it could happen to another family.

“No family deserves to go through this, I just miss her so much, she was dad’s girl,” he said.

Mr Anseline said he called triple-0 at 1.07am after his daughter was struggling to breathe due to having an asthma attack.

Lydia wanted to pursue a carrer as a lawyer. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

“She began having asthma the night before about 10.30pm she was wheezing, I gave her 12 puffs of ventolin inhaler in the spacer as per our asthma plan and this seemed to work,” he said.

“I was monitoring her and at 11.30pm to 12am, the asthma started again, so I gave her the nebuliser and she came good again and she was talking and laughing.”

He said her condition then worsened, with Lydia then being put on a nebuliser again almost an hour later.

“She was wheezing again and I gave her another nebuliser and about 1.07am my wife called triple-0 and they told us ‘help is on the way’.

“My wife got her bag ready so she can go with her to the hospital and as this was happening my daughter couldn’t breathe and she asked for more air, so we took her outside.”

Mr Anseline said he quickly started applying CPR on Lydia after she collapsed.

“I carried her outside … then she collapsed … I started applying CPR at about 1.15am, my wife called the ambulance again at 1.20pm and she was panicking and screaming.”

He said a fire rescue truck arrived at 1.35am and then an ambulance at 1.41am.

“By the time the ambulance arrived she had died and paramedics told us the coroner would soon attend.

Bernard says Lydia was bubbly and loving. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

“If the system wasn’t so under pressure Lydia would still be alive.

“I have full respect for ambulance services from my past experiences because my three sons are also asthmatics and one of my sons has been at the same stage as her, but the ambulance always came on time.

“From my house to the ambulance depot is four minutes and usually a courtesy car turns up, but this time it didn’t happen.”

Mr Anseline said he wished he had driven Lydia to the hospital instead.

“I’m living in fear as three of my children have asthma and when they walk out the door, I’m just so scared every time. If they knew the ambulance couldn’t arrive, they should’ve advised me – I would’ve driven her to hospital.”

He said Ambulance Victoria and ESTA had not contacted his family since the tragedy.

“This time no one has said anything to me or my wife, we haven’t heard anything. It was her funeral on May 2 and our family is still grieving.

“Lydia was a very bubbly girl, she would go out of her way to put a smile on anyone’s face. She loved callisthenics and sports. She was caring and she wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up.”

“Her brothers were her idols – she looked up to them, she loved her family. I just bought her a VT purple Commodore as her first car for when she turned 16 and now she will never get to drive it.

“Our hearts are truly broken without her, we are devastated, we don’t want anyone else to go through this. The ambulance delays must be urgently fixed, no one deserves to die like this.”

An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said: “We extend our deepest condolences to the patient’s family and loved ones in this extremely difficult time.”

“We are undertaking a full investigation into this tragic incident to better understand what happened and why,” she said.

“We take very seriously our work providing the very best care we can to every patient, and we’ll continue to work hard to serve the community during this period of increased demand.”

An ESTA spokeswoman said: “This is a very upsetting event – we offer our sincere condolences to Mr Anseline and his family as they deal with their grief.”

“Our Triple-0 operators care deeply about the service they provide to our Victorian community,” she said.