Exclusive Transplant Dad Dies After Nightmare Hospital Trip

By Janice Burns

A PATIENT died after an ambulance took SEVEN HOURS to transfer him between hospitals just 45 minutes apart.

Joe Walsh, 46, was only being moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow. But he was left languishing in the back of a transport ambulance while it dropped off other patients in Livingston, Kilmarnock and Ayr.

Grandad Joe, who was preparing for a liver transplant, left Edinburgh Royal Infirmary at 9.30am and didn’t arrive at Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow until 4.30pm.

By that time, he had covered around 150 miles. His widow Christine, 34, said last night: "He didn’t know where he was. He was delirious, utterly exhausted, dehydrated and starving."

Within hours, Joe was diagnosed with pneumonia. He died a week later.

Christine added: "I believe he got pneumonia because of the seven- hour journey. He looked like a ghost when he arrived at Stobhill.

"Someone has been negligent and stupid for allowing Joe to travel for so long without proper care.

"He should still be alive. He was so excited about his future, and looking forward to a new life with his new liver.

"Life without him will never be the same."

Ambulance bosses admitted that dad of three Joe spent "an extraordinary and inappropriate length of time" on the journey. They added: "We will be conducting an investigation."

Joe, of Springburn, Glasgow, made regular trips to Edinburgh Royal’s liver transplant unit to prepare for surgery.

Shortly before the op date, his doctors decided he could go home provided he carried on using a feeding pump similar to a hospital drip.

But because Joe lived in Glasgow, Edinburgh health chiefs wouldn’t cover the cost of the pump. So they sent him to Stobhill, the hospital nearest his home, to collect the equipment.

Christine said: "Joe was fine when he left Edinburgh.

"I asked to go with him but I was told the ambulance was full of other patients and there was no room."

Joe was put on board a transport ambulance with four other patients. NHS transport vehicles are manned by care assistants instead of paramedics, and are more like minibuses than fully- equipped accident and emergency ambulances.

If the ambulance had gone straight to Glasgow, the journey could have been over relatively quickly.

But instead, it made a detour to drop off another patient at St John’s Hospital in Livingston, West Lothian. It then headed west towards Ayrshire on a route which bypassed Glasgow.

Next stop was Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, followed by Ayr Hospital.

Then, at last, the ambulance headed for Glasgow. But it made yet another stop – to drop off a patient at Gartnavel General in the city’s west end, before finally taking Joe to Stobhill.

Christine, who was waiting for him when he arrived, said: "Even the ambulance staff were shocked by his condition. They said to me, ‘He’s in some state.’

"Joe said he’d nothing to eat and no medication all day. He only had two small bottles of water, given to him by a WRVS volunteer, to keep him going.

"The ambulance never even stopped to let him go to the toilet.

"Joe was a very shy and private man. He would never have asked the ambulance workers for help because he wouldn’t want to have put them to any trouble.

"He would just have suffered in silence.

"He just went downhill from there. His condition got worse that night and he was diagnosed with pneumonia."

Joe was taken to intensive care at Stobhill. He improved for a time and was sent back to Edinburgh Royal, but he then suffered a relapse and died.

Christine said: "Joe was my soulmate. He was the kindest, gentlest man you could meet and he deserved a second chance in life.

"Joe was really quiet and shy. Maybe that is why he drank a bit too much in his younger days. But he was so determined to stay alive and get that transplant that he hadn’t had a drink in seven years.

"He felt like George Best did – that he was so lucky to be given another chance.

"He has been robbed of that second chance, and we have been robbed of a wonderful man."

Christine said Joe’s grandson, Ian, three, gave him a whole new love of life.

She added: "Ian is lost without his grandad. Telling him Joe was in Heaven and wouldn’t be coming home was the hardest thing I have ever done.

"When Ian asks for him I just point to the sky and tell him his grandad is the brightest star up there, and that he is looking down and smiling on him.

"Ian is coping with it in his own way – by imitating his grandad’s every move and his voice. It’s heartbreaking to watch."

Christine is planning to sue the Scottish Ambulance Service and the NHS.

Her lawyer Cameron Fyfe, of Glasgow firm Ross Harper, said: "We will need to prove that this arduous ambulance journey contributed to Joseph’s death."

Christine said: "I want answers. I need to find out who is responsible for my husband’s death before I can begin to grieve properly."

A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "We have not received acomplaint from Mr Walsh’s family.

"However, we will be conducting an investigation, as this is an extraordinary and inappropriate length of time for a patient to spend on one of our vehicles on a journey of this type."

David Bolton, of NHS Lothian, said: "I am unable to discuss an individual patient’s treatment.

"But I would urge MrsWalsh to contact us so we can help her find answers to her questions concerning the tragic death of her husband."

‘Telling Ian his grandad was in Heaven was the hardest thing I’ve done’

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