A grieving mother has said she feels “failed” by Coventry University Hospital, whose representatives “did not bother to meet face to face” after her son’s death. Naomi Rees-Issitt, 43, lost her son Jamie Rees, 18, on January 5 last year after she went into cardiac arrest at a friend’s house on New Year’s Eve.
Jamie, who had been watching the fireworks that night, suffered oxygen starvation to the brain after waiting more than 17 minutes for an ambulance. Although a police officer arrived on the scene first, he did not have access to a defibrillator and the nearest machine at Ashlawn School, two minutes from where Jamie collapsed, was locked inside the building.
Since the tragic incident, Ms Rees and her family, who live in Rugby, established the OurJay Foundation to raise funds to provide 24/7 accessible defibrillators to the public. This week they installed their 43rd defibrillator, stored in a weatherproof box and accessible via a PIN code that can be obtained in seconds by calling 999.
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Ms Rees spoke at the West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) board meeting on Wednesday, where she has appeared several times since establishing OurJay, and praised the service for its continued support. Ms Rees contrasted this with the lack of care shown by Coventry hospital, which she had contacted following the outcome of the patient inquiry into Jamie’s death.
A key point showed that the time it took to transfer a patient’s care from the ambulance service to the hospital was partly to blame for the death. Ms Rees told LDRS: “The ambulance service basically had their hands tied because although they are the front line staff and have ambulances outside the hospital, the main reason is that they cannot transfer the patient to the emergency department.” . .”
He explained that the family contacted the hospital because they wanted their opinion on the situation and more information on what is leading to the delays, but did not hear back until more than a year after Jamie’s death. The hospital invited Ms. Rees and the Foundation to a Microsoft Teams meeting where two representatives offered them the opportunity to come in and meet the staff.
However, the family received no response and after Ms Rees’s local councilor contacted the hospital on her behalf, they were simply offered another Teams meeting. Ms Rees said: “Well, you know, it’s great to have Teams calls, but how are we going to make change if people can’t even take time out of their day to meet with the family of someone like Jamie? face to face with all the work we try to do to help the NHS?
“But yeah, we felt a bit of a failure on that point. I think that’s why I brought it up because West Midlands Ambulance has been very supportive of us.”
“Although they have apologized and admitted failure, we are surprised that they are the only organization that has come forward and apologized, while Coventry University Hospital doesn’t even bother to meet face to face.” .” In addition to the 43 defibrillators, 41 in Rugby and two in Leamington, the OurJay Foundation recently delivered one to Sutton Coldfield and one to Essex, which will bring the number to 45 once they are installed.
A couple of them are next to the field where the local children’s soccer teams play and another 10 portable defibrillators are in vehicles that travel through Rugby, including some trucks and electricians’ vans. Ms Rees added that the foundation is in discussions with the West Midlands and Warickshire police forces about the possibility of installing some police vehicles; currently, they are only one in 11.
The OurJay Foundation also hosts training events on how to perform effective CPR to ensure oxygenated blood reaches the brain. They are looking for vendors to donate support mannequins for this effort.
More information on fundraising events and how to donate can be found on the OurJay Foundation website. A spokesperson for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust said: “We are committed to listening to all feedback from patients and the public in order to continually learn and further improve the care and services we provide.
“Representatives of the Trust met with Naomi earlier this year and have also invited her to a Trust board meeting in the near future. Our thoughts remain with Jamie’s family at this difficult time and we welcome her campaign to install more defibrillators in and around Rugby.”
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