PARAMEDICS were seeing “New Year’s Eve demands on a daily basis” when they took 40 minutes to attend a suicide attempt in Colchester, an inquest has heard.
Essex Coroners Court heard Adam Lawrence had taken a drugs overdose.
Paramedics did not arrive to assist Mr Lawrence until a third 999 call within 40 minutes was made by his partner.
The coroner ruled Mr Lawrence had taken such a large amount of the drug that he could not have been saved even if the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS) attended within minutes of the first 999 call.
The inquest heard how Mr Lawrence – who had a history of attempting drug overdoses – was last seen alive by his partner at 11.30pm on November 22.
When she returned to his address a few hours later, she found him unresponsive and dialled 999 at 2.53am and 3.14am, telling call operators Mr Lawrence was having a seizure.
Call operators designated the priority as a category two, which means paramedics are expected to arrive within about 18 minutes.
When Mr Lawrence’s condition deteriorated, his partner called 999 for a third time at 3.27am and the case was deemed serious enough to be deemed a category one.
An ambulance arrived at 3.32am, and Mr Lawrence then went into cardiac arrest due to drugs in his system.
Mr Lawrence was taken to Colchester Hospital but died at 4.59am.
After reviewing evidence from a post-mortem report, emergency medicine consultant Nadeem Nayeem said he believed “the drug overdose Mr Lawrence had taken could have been treated had the treatment started immediately”.
But coroner Sonia Hayes said the level of drugs Mr Lawrence had ingested was not survivable.
She said: “I am going to say that in my time as a coroner, I have never seen an amount quite as high – this was a massive, massive amount.”
Forensic pharmacologist Paul Skett told the court the levels of the drug in Mr Lawrence’s system meant that “once cardiac arrest has occurred, it is very difficult to reverse it”.
Christopher Hewitson, patient safety officer at the EEAS, said the service was facing huge levels of demand at the time.
He said: “We saw New Year’s Even demands on a daily basis – it didn’t matter which day of the week it was.
“Patients were sometimes waiting days for an ambulance to arrive – it was pretty relentless”.
The coroner ruled Mr Lawrence’s death was one of suicide.
Anyone needing help should contact the Samaritans on 116123.
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