A 36-year-old woman died from a heart attack after waiting almost 10 hours for an ambulance, a coroner has ruled. Gina Bywater became ill at her Suffolk home on 12 December, and an ambulance was called at 00:01 GMT on 13 December, but did not arrive until 09:45.
Senior coroner for Suffolk Nigel Parsley said the delay directly contributed to her death. In a prevention of future deaths report, he noted that the ambulance service was under high demand, with ambulances waiting to offload patients at local hospitals.
Three 999 calls were made, all coded as Category 2, with a target response time of 18 minutes. A welfare call at 09:36 identified that Ms Bywater had gone into cardiac arrest, prompting a Category 1 response, but the ambulance arrived nine minutes later.
A post-mortem examination found she died from acute myocardial infarction, along with other conditions. A consultant cardiologist stated that if an ambulance had arrived within the target time, lifesaving drugs and early transport would likely have saved her life.
The East of England Ambulance Service apologised to Ms Bywater's family, saying response times have since improved due to increased staffing and ambulances, but acknowledged more work is needed.
