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| Fred Pring died from heart failure, pathologist tells inquest | Fred Pring died from heart failure, pathologist tells inquest |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A Home Office pathologist has said it was extremely difficult to answer whether an earlier response to a 999 call would have saved a man's life. | A Home Office pathologist has said it was extremely difficult to answer whether an earlier response to a 999 call would have saved a man's life. |
| The inquest at Ruthin has heard claims Fred Ping, 74, from Mynydd Isa, Flintshire, might have survived if he had not had to wait more than 40 minutes for an ambulance. | The inquest at Ruthin has heard claims Fred Ping, 74, from Mynydd Isa, Flintshire, might have survived if he had not had to wait more than 40 minutes for an ambulance. |
| Dr Brian Rogers said the cause of death was heart disease and chronic lung disease. | Dr Brian Rogers said the cause of death was heart disease and chronic lung disease. |
| Mr Pring had heart failure, he said. | Mr Pring had heart failure, he said. |
| Mr Pring, who died in March 2013 at his home, had been receiving treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. | Mr Pring, who died in March 2013 at his home, had been receiving treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. |
| Dr Rogers told the inquest his already compromised arteries struggled to cope with added pressure from weakened lungs. | Dr Rogers told the inquest his already compromised arteries struggled to cope with added pressure from weakened lungs. |
| 'Too late' | |
| "His heart had been failing, he had chest pain because his heart was struggling and his lungs weren't functioning properly," Dr Rogers said. | |
| "Whether or not earlier intervention would have altered the outcome is impossible to say from the pathology evidence. It's possible it would, it's possible it wouldn't." | |
| Previously, the inquest has been told how Mr Pring's wife Joyce called 999 three times for an ambulance for her husband but was told the service was "very busy" in her area. | Previously, the inquest has been told how Mr Pring's wife Joyce called 999 three times for an ambulance for her husband but was told the service was "very busy" in her area. |
| She called a fourth time to say they were "too late" and that her husband had passed away. | She called a fourth time to say they were "too late" and that her husband had passed away. |
| On Friday, Gill Fleming, from the Welsh Ambulance Service, said the 999 calls made by Mrs Pring had been audited and only "minor errors" had been found in the way that they were handled, such as the operator failing to confirm the caller's phone number. | |
| She told the coroner the audit of the fourth call, which was particularly criticised by Mrs Pring, found the operator "displayed professional and compassionate handling of the call". | |
| 'Red two' | |
| On the day Mr Pring died, Miss Fleming said, the ambulance service was fully staffed. There were seven ambulances and one rapid response vehicle to cover Flintshire and Wrexham. | |
| But, she said, at the time of Mrs Pring's first call, there were no ambulances available. | |
| Coroner John Gittins asked: "Presumably the caller isn't told that? They're not told 'Sorry, we haven't got one available'?" | |
| Miss Fleming replied: "No." | |
| The coroner said Mr Pring's case had been classified by the ambulance service as 'red two', which is a lower priority than 'red one', which means an immediate threat to life. | |
| Mr Gittins asked whether the call would be upgraded to a higher priority if there was a delay in sending an ambulance. | |
| "No," Miss Fleming replied. | |
| 'Significant delays' | |
| At the time of Mrs Pring's call, the court was told one ambulance had spent nearly five hours (287 minutes) waiting at Wrexham Maelor Hospital to drop off a patient. | |
| Another ambulance had been at the same hospital for more than an hour and a half. | |
| The coroner told the inquest: "In a nutshell, six vehicles waiting to transfer patients into Wrexham Maelor Hospital, three waiting to transfer patients into Glan Clwyd - all experiencing delays significantly beyond the 15 minute target handover." | |
| Mr Pring's cardiologist had earlier told the hearing that if the ambulance had arrived after the first 999 he would have survived. | |
| The consultant told the coroner he would have expected the ambulance to have arrived in six minutes. | The consultant told the coroner he would have expected the ambulance to have arrived in six minutes. |