The family of a victim of the Manchester Arena bombing have slammed emergency services failures after it was found his injuries were survivable. The family of John Atkinson, one of the 22 who died on the night of May 2017, expressed their grief after it was found he could have survived if treated faster, Sir John Saunders, the chair of the public inquiry into the atrocity has said.
The 28-year-old, from Radcliffe, repeatedly told the makeshift band of willing but hopelessly ill-prepared helpers around him ‘I’m going to die’ with his family saying "he was left, dying, without his dignity". He was left with devastating injuries to his legs in the City Room, where the blast happened, before being moved to the 'field hospital' on the Victoria station concourse after 74 minutes. His early care was left to former pizza shop boss Ronald Blake, who held a makeshift tourniquet fashioned from his wife's belt and folded t-shirts for almost hour.
In a devastating and heartbreaking statement in the wake of this report, his family said: "John was our son, brother, uncle, and friend. Everyone who knew him loved being around him. He always put others first.
