LMFM story on ambulance death

Dublin's Finest

Hey, just wondering if anybody heard a news story on LMFM this morning about an elderly woman in Drogheda who died because the ambulance's GPS system led it astray??

Something to do with two places having the same name.

I'd like to hear more on it.

r3nu4l

Haven't heard it but to be honest I imagine that the claim is slightly exaggerated.

The patients condition may have been one where arrival at the hospital on time would have gaurenteed survival but if it was that touch and go arrival on time may only have temporarily stabilised the patient before he/she died anyway. It all depends on the condition of the patient at the time and the level of care that could be applied in the ambulance.

I wonder will the introduction of postcodes in Ireland help to avoid this type of confusion?

Dublin's Finest

I had thought that myself but it would be nice to know a bit more about it. My Dad mentioned it to me and said that that mix-up led to what should have been a 5 minute journey taking 47 minutes instead.

I'm expect the Drogheda Independent will carry it.

Judt

Sounds rather similar to a case in the UK which saw an ambulance crew turn a 15 minute journey into one of several hours. GPS is a good, handy system... but a bit of common sense might also help when using the system.

Nevyn

ffs what is wrong with a map and with EMTs having to know the area they are working in ?

Dublin's Finest

RTÉ's 9 o'clock news covered it tonight.

TheNog

I was at the inquest. The problem arose when the controller in Navan received the 999 call. The address given to him was Sycamore Close,Termon Abbey which is about 6yrs old. The electronic system hadn't been updated with this address so when the controller entered Sycamore he got a hit on The Sycamores. The ambulance went to the address they received - The Sycamores. When they arrived at the specified number they found a house with 2 doors, a glass porch door and an inside front door. The inside front door had been left open by the owner that morning. The ambulance crew thought that the caller must have been the emergency and believed that he/she had collapsed. They tried to gain entry to the house but after 4/5minutes they started to wonder if the address was in termon abbey. They went to termon abbey but as someone who lives there will tell you that streets in the estate are facing away from you when u drive in (clever isn't it) and the sign for Sycamore Close had been removed due to vandalism.

That's what happened. THe ambulance crew were quite upset about the whole thing as they are there to save lives themselves. As for knowng every estate in Drogheda, it is a nearly impossible task. With so many estates in the town and with new ones appearing every few weeks. Not forgetting ambulance crews have to know a vast country area outside of drogheda too. Even the Gardai get lost sometimes in Drogheda's estates.

lostexpectation

TheNog wrote:

I was at the inquest. The problem arose when the controller in Navan received the 999 call. The address given to him was Sycamore Close,Termon Abbey which is about 6yrs old. The electronic system hadn't been updated with this address so when the controller entered Sycamore he got a hit on The Sycamores. The ambulance went to the address they received - The Sycamores. When they arrived at the specified number they found a house with 2 doors, a glass porch door and an inside front door. The inside front door had been left open by the owner that morning. The ambulance crew thought that the caller must have been the emergency and believed that he/she had collapsed. They tried to gain entry to the house but after 4/5minutes they started to wonder if the address was in termon abbey. They went to termon abbey but as someone who lives there will tell you that streets in the estate are facing away from you when u drive in (clever isn't it) and the sign for Sycamore Close had been removed due to vandalism.

That's what happened. THe ambulance crew were quite upset about the whole thing as they are there to save lives themselves. As for knowng every estate in Drogheda, it is a nearly impossible task. With so many estates in the town and with new ones appearing every few weeks. Not forgetting ambulance crews have to know a vast country area outside of drogheda too. Even the Gardai get lost sometimes in Drogheda's estates.

isn't that what controllers are for? and double checking with maps?

flogen

I've heard stories (not urban legends, friends of the family, or friends of a friend kind of stuff) where a person left their boot unlocked in a new car because the boot on their last car used to lock as part of the central locking system (and they stopped double checking to make sure as a result).
I've heard another story where someone crashed his rental car while parking it because, rather than looking in the mirror while reversing, he was waiting for "the beeps".

Basically, just because a new technology makes something easier to do, it doesn't mean you should let it do all the work for you. If you do that you'll be let down.
Would the drivers not have seen the other address coming up on the system that didn't match the one given to them? Did they not have a personal knowledge of the area or, as suggested, a map?
I'm not suggesting the tragedy is their fault alone, but there's an element of complacency when you punch some details into a satnav and assume it'll guide you to the right address, especially in a rural area where addresses and areas are more vague.

walshb

I have to agree with Flogen. When dealing with life and death situations, never ever assume. Someone was at fault here and it should be thoroughly investigated in order to prevent a reoccurrence. You cannot leave anything to chance

shane86

Jesus. Pizza delivery men ought to know every inch of their patch, never mind ambo drivers. Another case of over reliance on modern rubbish technology.

Mind you, Blanch is full of new estates with bad address allocation. For example the Castlecurragh estate is split in 3- Park, Vale and Heath. Each has 250-300 homes each, yet you have addresses like 174 Castlecurragh Vale. Meaning any ambo driver could find themselves driving by door numbers in dead of night looking for the right one, rather than having the estate split into street names (which could easily be done, its a layout like any other estate(

Guy:Incognito

shane86 wrote:

Jesus. Pizza delivery men ought to know every inch of their patch, never mind ambo drivers. (

I take it you've never been into a dominos? The drivers have a big map on the wall they're always checking adresses on.

lostexpectation

flogen wrote:

I've heard stories (not urban legends, friends of the family, or friends of a friend kind of stuff) where a person left their boot unlocked in a new car because the boot on their last car used to lock as part of the central locking system (and they stopped double checking to make sure as a result).
I've heard another story where someone crashed his rental car while parking it because, rather than looking in the mirror while reversing, he was waiting for "the beeps".

Basically, just because a new technology makes something easier to do, it doesn't mean you should let it do all the work for you. If you do that you'll be let down.
Would the drivers not have seen the other address coming up on the system that didn't match the one given to them? Did they not have a personal knowledge of the area or, as suggested, a map?
I'm not suggesting the tragedy is their fault alone, but there's an element of complacency when you punch some details into a satnav and assume it'll guide you to the right address, especially in a rural area where addresses and areas are more vague.

well perhpas we should give the ambulance drivers the benefit of the doubt that the new estate wasn't even on paper maps yet? I wonder who is charge of informing others of new estates one hopes the council or the OSI would give the ambulance service the maps for free

lostexpectation

flogen wrote:

I've heard stories (not urban legends, friends of the family, or friends of a friend kind of stuff) where a person left their boot unlocked in a new car because the boot on their last car used to lock as part of the central locking system (and they stopped double checking to make sure as a result).
I've heard another story where someone crashed his rental car while parking it because, rather than looking in the mirror while reversing, he was waiting for "the beeps".

Basically, just because a new technology makes something easier to do, it doesn't mean you should let it do all the work for you. If you do that you'll be let down.
Would the drivers not have seen the other address coming up on the system that didn't match the one given to them? Did they not have a personal knowledge of the area or, as suggested, a map?
I'm not suggesting the tragedy is their fault alone, but there's an element of complacency when you punch some details into a satnav and assume it'll guide you to the right address, especially in a rural area where addresses and areas are more vague.

well perhpas we should give the ambulance drivers the benefit of the doubt that the new estate wasn't even on paper maps yet? I wonder who is charge of informing others of new estates one hopes the council or the OSI would give the ambulance service the maps for free

timmywex

lostexpectation wrote:

well perhpas we should give the ambulance drivers the benefit of the doubt that the new estate wasn't even on paper maps yet? I wonder who is charge of informing others of new estates one hopes the council or the OSI would give the ambulance service the maps for free

yes, the level of development is too hard to keep up with and the maps are often years old so they dont know the area and also the crew might have only been there for the night and off to another town the next becasue of the lack of staff in the service

Dublin's Finest

Quite a bump there!