Haunting 999 calls reveal how paramedics refused to take woman who was dying of swine flu to hospital THREE times
West Midlands Ambulance Service has finally admitted to its failings six years after Niyousha Haki, 28, begged them to treat her as she vomited blood in her home
HAUNTING tapes have revealed how paramedics repeatedly refused to take a dying woman to hospital despite her multiple pleas for help.
Niyousha Haki, 28, begged three different ambulance crews on December 14, 2010, to save her but each one refused – with one medic telling a colleague “all is well” just hours before she died.
Niyousha was suffering from swine flu and died the next day after her mum, Hazel Nannestad, took her to a GP who called for an ambulance to take her to the hospital.
Now, after a six year battle for justice by her devastated mother, West Midlands Ambulance Service have finally admitted liability for Niyousha's death.
NHS bosses have offered to pay £15,000 in compensation, but furious Hazel says she does not want their "blood money" - and will donate it to charity instead.
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Hazel, 53, said: “West Midlands Ambulance service has blood on its hands. The way they treated my daughter in her hours of need was disgraceful.
“No one would let a stray dog die in the way my daughter did, let alone a beautiful young woman with her whole future ahead of her.
“As a mother I should never have to bury my child before myself.
“I don't want a penny of compensation, I wanted justice for my daughter and to make sure this never happens again.”
In a desperate bid to prevent more needless deaths, Hazel has released tapes of the heart-wrenching 999 calls made by her dying daughter pleading to be taken to hospital.
And she has also shared recordings of the phone conversations which took place that night between the negligent ambulance workers and HQ staff.
Niyousha first phoned WMAS for help on the evening of December 14, 2010, after her condition rapidly deteriorated.
In the first of three calls, she explains through wheezing and broken breaths that she needs urgent treatment.
With a temperature of 39.6C, chest pains, shortness of breath and blood in her vomit, Niyousha should have been taken to hospital.
But the ambulance crew decided to leave her at home, simply advising her to drink water and take paracetamol.
Knowing she was extremely unwell, Niyousha became frustrated and angry that her pleas were being ignored and threatened to sue the ambulance service if they did not take her.
She was seen again by two other crews from WMAS over a five hour period.
Between the second and third visits, Hazel and her brother Houram Haki, who were in London at the time, rushed to Birmingham to check on her.
Hazel recalls: “My daughter asked her uncle and I for help. She said: 'I am dying and they are not going to help me'.
“When we arrived we saw she was in pain. She was short of breath and her face was as white as the wall. There was something seriously wrong.”
Mr Haki, 45, made the third call to WMAS at 4am, and a first responder was sent to the house.
In a previously unheard phone conversation between the medic and HQ, the call handler suggests Niyousha has been wasting their time, saying: “Unfortunately we have to keep going and checking her out.”
The shocking recording continues with the first responder asking for clarity on the protocol for taking patients to hospital if they suspect swine flu.
The call handler goes away to check before phoning back to say: “We are not entirely sure with this one, as we've had no protocols on it this year.
“The others have not taken her in.”
To which the first responder replies: “I think as far as the hospitals are concerned they are not wishing to have anybody with flu like symptoms in.”
The call handler then adds: “It is the clinician's decision.
“I think you'll probably be the same as all the others who have been tonight and believe that she doesn't need to go to hospital.
“She's not been violent with anyone, I think she's just getting aggressive because she wants to go in, which is why she keeps ringing.
“Maybe you could try and have a word with her this time.”
The responder then phones back at 4.40am to say her mother had been advised to speak to the GP in the morning, adding: “All is well.”
Hazel had also been told not to take her daughter to A&E herself, as she would be sent away due to the infection risk of swine flu.
So the following morning the desperate mum took Niyousha - who by then couldn't even walk - to see a GP who recognised the signs that her body was shutting down and called an ambulance.
She suffered the first of three heart attacks on arrival at hospital and died later that day.
She had developed secondary staphylococcal pneumonia - a recognised and life threatening complication of swine flu that paramedics failed to identify.
An inquest in 2012 lead by coroner Aidan Cotter found that Niyousha had died of natural causes, and there was no gross failure or neglect.
Devastated by the findings of the inquest Hazel instructed her solicitors to launch civil court proceedings against the ambulance service in December 2013.
And finally this year WMAS made a written admission of their breach of duty of care for all three attendances and wrote an apology to Hazel, admitting liability.
Hazel, from west London, said: “This has caused me and my family years of distress. It has destroyed us.
“Christmas used to be a happy time of the year but now December reminds me of my daughter's painful drawn out death.
“My mistake was that we believed the paramedics would help my daughter.”
Hazel's solicitor Josie Robinson has said: “This was a long and hard fought legal battle, to obtain some sense of justice for Hazel, who knew that her daughter's death was avoidable.
“All Hazel wanted was an early admission of liability and a genuine and heartfelt apology from the ambulance service.”
A spokesperson from the WMAS said: “The Trust has apologised for its failings, specifically in respect of the failure to get Niyousha to hospital in December 2010.
“The Trust wanted to ensure that lessons were learnt from this case.
“Several recommendations were made and the Trust has since implemented a number of measures, which included the creation of a Trust-wide policy governing non-conveyance of patients.
“This will have been a difficult time for the family and our thoughts remain with them.”
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