The family of a man who died were left feeling “50 times worse” after a resident left a note of complaint on the ambulance sent to the emergency.
John Hagans, the manager of Livingstone House where the patient was staying, spoke to the Mirror about the family’s ordeal.
He said: “They are absolutely horrified. They said it’s hard enough as it is, with the loss.
“The man’s father said to me that it has just made it 50 times worse. He was somebody who had made poor choices but was now making the right ones.
“I am absolutely disgusted that an individual complained about the ambulance’s parking. An ambulance is a sacred space. What goes on inside there, it shouldn’t be interfered with.”
The paramedics in Birmingham were stunned last week when they parked their ambulance on a residential street in an emergency to try and save a life.
When they returned to their ambulance after responding to an emergency call, paramedic Tasha Starkey, of the West Midlands Ambulance Service, made a shocking discovery.
A disgruntled resident had left a note on the ambulance’s windscreen, reading: “You may be saving lives, but don’t park your van in a stupid place and block my drive.”
The West Midlands Ambulance service sent out a tweet containing an image of the note, captioning it: “Sometimes we don’t know what to say. This was the note left on an ambulance today. At the time, the crew were helping a man who was extremely unwell after vomiting blood.
“They took him on blue lights to hospital where he was in a critical condition. #patientscomefirst.”
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It went viral, with floods of support for the ambulance service condemning the note-writer.
John continued: “One of these days, heaven forbid that the man who left the note or his family might need an ambulance.”
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The patient was taken in the ambulance to Heartlands Hospital nearby, but tragically died.
He was just 42 years old, which makes his death all the more difficult for his grieving family.