A 19-year-old pregnant woman has died on Tuesday morning while waiting for an ambulance. Both the mother in the 8th month of pregnancy and her unborn baby left their last breathe in Nea Makri, eastern Attica, just 37 km away from the center of Capital Athens.
Her relatives claim that she was waiting for the ambulance for more than 5 hours.
Speaking to media, the relatives said they first called the National Ambulance Service EKAV at 8:30 in the morning, while the First Aid vehicle arrived after 1 o’ clock noon.
Before that they had made some 20 calls to EKAV stressing the urgency of the situation as the pregnant woman was giving birth. They claimed that they were told that there were either no free ambulances available or already on the way. At some point they were even told to not ‘move’ and woman and to wait for the ambulance.
The young mother to be had contractions and did not feel well for several hours but no ambulance in sight.
In a desperate move as the couple had no own car, the relatives called a taxi that arrived but it drove away without the suffering woman with the driver reportedly said that he was afraid to transport such a serious incident.
When the ambulance finally arrived, the rescuers realized that the woman had already passed away, state broadcaster ERT reported.
Speaking to media, relatives contradict such claims saying that she was alive even though with very low pulse and that the baby died two hours later.
Media reports are a bit confusing as some reported that the ambulance did pick her up at 13:38 with the rescuers intubating her on the way to the health center but without success. When the 19-year-old finally arrived at the health center, she had mydriasis, i.e. intense dilation of the pupil of the eye, which indicates that she probably suffered a stroke, newspaper topontiki.gr reported, while others had that she was given CPR.
The relatives wonder why the woman was transferred to Nea Makri Health Center and not to a hospital in Athens as the incident was very serious.
Citing sources EKAV sources, ERT suggested that incident was not initially considered as high priority, given the significant number of similar calls they regularly receive. Also daily ethnos.gr reported, it appears that the incident was declared by the EKAV as an “exertion of forces” incident and was not deemed urgent, with the result that an ambulance from the Nea Makri Health Center did not rush to the scene..
The tragedy occurred just two days after a 63-year-old woman died on the back of a pick up truck on Kos on Sunday, as the only ambulance in the popular island was busy with another incident.
A autopsy is to determine the exact causes of the death of the 19-year-old pregnant woman.
After the uproar, the Athens prosecutor ordered an urgent investigation into the tragic incident in Nea Makri and the reasons the ambulance was delayed.
An EKAV representative told Mega TV Live News that “over 40-50 calls for incidents after 11 a.m. on daily basis.”
He indirectly blamed the relatives of the pregnant woman but also others calling at EKAV that they do not supply the Call Center with proper information about the health condition of those in need of an ambulance.
On its part the Health Ministry pointed out that it is investigating the circumstances around the transport of patients and that responsibilities will be assigned after the completion of the relevant investigation.
PS citizens are citizens and not doctors to properly estimate and describe a health situation, and I say that as somebody who had to call several times an ambulance due to old and fragile parents. In one case they also told me on the phone to perform some actions which I was not able to do.
