Mum fought in vain to save son while waiting for ambulance, but a terrible error had been made

A 35-year-old man from Cardiff died after collapsing at home despite his mother and brother trying to give him CPR. Martyn Wright collapsed at home, and it has since been found that there were errors in the way his family's calls to the ambulance service were handled.

Martyn's mum, Claire, claimed that calling 999 was a "lottery". In a statement to WalesOnline, she, said: "Through lived experience, we have learned our 999 emergency service cannot be relied upon even when there is clearly an immediate risk to life, it's now quite simply a lottery. An ambulance initially allocated to attend my son who collapsed at home suddenly in December, 2022, was stood down in error by a novice 999 call-handler, this caused a significant delay to him receiving vital treatment.

"Despite our younger son performing CPR on his unconscious brother, when they did arrive 45 minutes later as a result of a follow up call made by myself, Martyn was tragically beyond help." Martyn's case was referred to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, who has found there were errors in the handling of his case. 

On the day of his collapse, Martyn was at home with his mum and brother. Two 999 calls were made. The first call was incorrectly downgraded from a red priority to "green 2". The second call was also not handled appropriately, with incorrect information given to Mrs Wright about resuscitation. As a result, the ambulance arrived 32 minutes late.

Through it all, Mrs Wright and her son were, the report said, "attempting to deliver CPR without instruction or support". Mrs Wright complained about how the calls were handled, how the attending paramedics kept a record of events and whether the outcome for Martyn would have been different had the ambulance arrived earlier. The ombudsman found that the Welsh Ambulance Service trust did not properly manage the two 999 calls made after Martyn had collapsed.

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Source: Wales Online, 18 March 2025