When Rich House Poor House star Matt Fiddes discovered his two-year-old boy wasn’t breathing, he gave CPR while waiting more than 21 minutes for an emergency ambulance to arrive.
The Fiddes family, who live just outside Swindon and own 750 martial arts schools worldwide, were sent into panic when Hero has stopped breathing in the car on their driveway in October 2017.
The ambulance control room received a call at 1.13pm, reporting that Hero had stopped breathing. The call was marked as ‘purple’ – the highest priory call, with a 7 minute response target.
At 1.18pm, the incident was downgraded to ‘category 3’ after hearing that Hero was now breathing following CPR from Mr Fiddes – which has a response target of 40 minutes.
Hero’s life was still in the balance. A damming NHS report into the handling of this call – which Wiltshire 999s has seen – revealed how there were no ambulances available to attend.
A ‘general broadcast’ was issued to all ambulances in the area, asking if anyone was available to respond. A paramedic – in a rapid response car – who was on her lunch break at the time decided to take the shout. She raced to the scene, arriving around 21 minutes after the 999 began.
The report said that, at the time of the Fiddes’ call for help, all emergency ambulances were assigned to other incidents – which included 25 highest level ‘Purple’ calls in progress.
The NHS report said that they has concerns over the level of customer service given by the ambulance call handler. But they say this didn’t affect the result of the 999 call.
Talking to Wiltshire 999s, Mr Fiddes said: “I can’t fault the paramedic who gave up her lunch break enough. If I know where she was now, I’d go and buy her some flowers and chocolates.
“I was really angry initially, having been through something so traumatic, giving my son CPR and waiting so long for an ambulance. But I had no idea she was on an unpaid lunch break and gave it up to help.
“My child was barely breathing, he was all over the place. I thought he was going to stop breaking again any second. I just wanted help to arrive. Why didn’t get tell me there were no ambulances?”
A South Western Ambulance Service spokesperson defended its decisions of the 999 call: “It was clear during the call that the patient was then conscious and breathing.
“A paramedic in a rapid response vehicle responded to the call during their meal break and arrived on scene in 20 minutes and 44 seconds, well within the 40 minute target time.”
