Ambulance nurse refused to help my dying mother

By Nicola Ioannou Published on August 1, 2010

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Rosemary Dodd with her husband Ray in 2005

ROSEMARY Dodd’s last journey in this life was unnecessarily harrowing, undignified and painful.
“Just give me a minute, just give me a minute,” the frail, 67-year-old Paphos resident, weighing a pathetic 40 kg, implored the ambulance driver as he impatiently and roughly put her onto a stretcher.
Her daughter, Victoria Nickel, whose strength has been sapped by multiple sclerosis, had to help the driver haul the stretcher down the steps of Rosemary’s house to the ambulance. All the while, an ambulance nurse stood with an air of nonchalant indifference, refusing to help.
The nurse’s only contribution had been earlier in Rosemary’s house where she ordered Victoria to “put some clothes” on her mother, who lay collapsed on the floor, semi-dressed.
“I asked her for help and she refused,” says Victoria, whose grief has been compounded by bitterness and anger over the treatment her mother received.
Rosemary died three days later at Paphos General Hospital. She had long been suffering from an undiagonised illness.
“I was totally disgusted by the ambulance staff,” said Rosemary’s distressed daughter Victoria, before recounting the events that unfolded on Friday July 9.
A well respected member of the UKCA (UK Citizens’ Association Cyprus), Rosemary had been incredibly weak for months beforehand, losing 15-20 kg to drop to a mere 40 kg, but doctors at three different hospitals had been unable to diagnose the underlying issue and so were treating her symptoms.
“I live just around the corner from my mother and I rang an ambulance when my step father called to say she was getting weaker,” said Victoria, adding that she had to meet the ambulance service at a nearby landmark to lead them to the house as they couldn’t understand the directions.
“When we got to the house, she was lying on the floor and wasn’t dressed properly. The ambulance girl said to me ‘you have to put some clothes on her’ and just stood there. I asked her for help and she refused.”
Despite the attendant’s indifference, Victoria managed to put a dress on her frail mother to maintain her modesty. She told the “so-called nurse” her mother’s history and the driver went to fetch a stretcher.
“The driver was a bit rough and when he put the stretcher down as low as it could go, he then grabbed her ankles to start moving her. By this point my mother was very distressed and she kept saying ‘Just give me a minute, just give me a minute’.” Victoria remembers how whilst all this was happening the young female ambulance attendant wasn’t helping at all and she had to help the driver get her mother in the stretcher herself and carry it down steps and out of the house.
“I’m only 39 but I have multiple sclerosis and I don’t have the strength. My stepfather is in his seventies and was unable to help. When you call an ambulance you don’t expect to do the lifting yourself. That girl had a serious attitude problem and did not want to be there,” said Victoria.
“The whole time she was there, the nurse didn’t do anything, she didn’t put her hands in her bag, She didn’t examine my mother or help in any way.
“She seemed to be out of her depth, which raises the worrying question of what was she doing there? There needs to be proper paramedic training.”
What shocked Victoria so much was that on past occasions when they had called for an ambulance from the Paphos general hospital, everyone had been so helpful.
The young woman’s inappropriate behaviour did not end on arrival at the hospital. As she was checking in Rosemary, Victoria was trying to explain her mother’s history to the ward staff but was being rebuked by the rude and bossy attendant, who kept telling her to go away. “A doctor there however overruled her and told her that I should stay as I obviously knew what was going on and her history,”
After the distressing experience of getting to the hospital, Rosemary remained there until the Monday when she sadly passed away after progressive organ failure. “The doctors and staff on the ward and in intensive care were very professional and made sure her last days were relatively peaceful,” said Victoria.
The Health Ministry has been making unfulfilled promises for a new and improved ambulance service for years, complete with specially trained paramedic staff equipped to deal with any emergency in a professional manner. Although many staff are undeniably able to carry out their duties, Rosemary’s case makes clear there is still a long way to go.
According to the head of ambulance services, ambulances are manned by nurses and drivers who have been trained by attending seminars and taking part in short term education courses. He said that they are at the final stages of implementing a year-long paramedic course, which will include interpersonal relations and psychology training as well as complete paramedic training to deal with any situation.
“We undertake superhuman efforts, all of the staff, to live up to people’s expectations,” he told the Sunday Mail, promising that an investigation will be launched into behaviour of the ambulance nurse who attended to Rosemary once an official complaint is received. “It’s important that people contact us and complain about such incidences so we can look into them and make sure they aren’t repeated.”
Kouppis verified that plans to overhaul the ambulance system and create a paramedic system such as exist abroad are still in place, including the intensive training of paramedics to fill new posts, the acquisition of more ambulances equipped with Global Positioning Systems to monitor their movement and guide them, and a central control centre based in Nicosia.
The ambulance chief was cautious when asked about when this would happen.
“I can’t predict by when the new system will be in place,” said, acknowledging that all previous proposed deadlines have been missed due to difficulties in implementing the new system, mainly financial.