John Codd, an 88-year-old former British Army colonel, fell getting out of a taxi in St. Austell, England, fracturing his right femur and suffering a rectus sheath hematoma. It took an ambulance more than two hours to arrive and take him to Royal Cornwall Hospital, where he then had to remain in the ambulance for almost five more hours because no beds were available. An hour after he was finally admitted, he was found on the floor of his room and could not be revived, having suffered a heart attack. A doctor with the National Health Service said Codd should have been seen within an hour of arriving at the hospital—in which case they may have been able to save him—but delays with ambulance response and hospital admission are common, not just at Cornwall but hospitals across the country.
The post Brickbat: Too Little, Too Late appeared first on Reason.com.
