Glasgow man on brink of overdose almost had to wait over THREE hours for ambulance

Soup kitchen volunteers at Homeless Project Scotland dialled 999 after finding the suspected victim along Argyle Street and administering him with Naloxone.

After he became unresponsive to the overdose-revering drug, volunteers were told it would take three-and-a-half hours before paramedics could reach him - which they say would have been "too late". 

After taking matters into their own hands, chairman of the charity, Colin McInnes, has recounted the "traumatic" incident, which took place yesterday evening. 

He said: “Our volunteers came across a man who was unconscious and appeared to be in a deep sleep.

“They tried to wake him up, but he was not responding. He was showing signs of an overdose so they administered Naloxone.

“Eventually he started to gain consciousness and started to talk but he then became unresponsive again.

“The volunteers gave him a second tube of the overdose-reversing medication and while this was going on, my colleague was on the phone dialling 999 for an ambulance.

“They were pinching his ears and trying to get a reaction from him, but he was completely unconscious.

“The call handler told my volunteer that they were too busy at that time to distribute an ambulance immediately and that it would take three-and-a-half hours for them to get there."

The group of five worked to haul the man - who was "deadweight" - into the charity's van and to the accident and emergency department at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. 

"We had a decision to make", said Colin. 

"Either we could take him to the hospital ourselves or we could leave him for more than three hours."

Naloxone - which reverses the effects of opioid drugs - works by knocking the opioids out of the receptors in the brain where they are having their effect and preventing them from returning.

Naloxone

When enough of the drug is administered, breathing will return to normal - saving an individual from the brink of death.

Colin added: “What is important, is that when we were provided training for administering Naloxone, we were taught that time matters.

“If those requiring the medication are left for too long, they could go into cardiac arrest. Three-and-a-half hours was going to be far too late. He would have died.

“The whole ordeal was traumatic for our volunteers, we had a man’s life in our hands. He could have died at any minute."

The charity leader has been left fearful his volunteers will have to deal with a similar encounter again in the future. 

Homeless Project Scotland chairman, Colin McInnes

He added: “What if we didn’t have the van last night? The consequences would have been fatal, he simply would have died. Would we have had to wait for three-and-a-half hours for them to collect a dead body?

“We don’t blame the ambulance service, they are pushed beyond imaginable belief. The question is, where are the resources?

“It worries us as a charity in case we are left with a scenario like this again. We fear what will happen next time.”

The Glasgow Times understands that the volunteer to dial 999 last night was called at 5.11am this morning for notification that an ambulance was on its way to Argyle Street. 

It comes after our sister title, The Herald, revealed a frail pensioner died on Monday after waiting for 40-hours for an ambulance to arrive at his Dumbreck flat.

The partner of Gerard Brown's son called emergency services after finding the 65-year-old on the floor of his property with cuts to his back and arms after a fall. 

Paramedics arrived at 3am on Wednesday, by which time Mr Brown had sadly passed away.

Today, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that she is seeking military help for Scotland's ambulance service as patients wait several hours for treatment. 

Speaking at the First Minister's Questions, she said: "Our ambulance pressure is working under acute pressure right now, largely due to Covid.

"I want to take the time to thank our paramedics and technicians for the work they are doing in such difficult circumstances.

"While they are responding to these challenges, I recognise that some people are not getting the standards of service they should be getting, or the standard the ambulance service wants to deliver.

"I apologise unreservedly to anyone who has suffered or who is suffering unacceptably long waits."

She added: "I can confirm this includes consideration of seeking targeted military assistance to help deal with short-term pressure points.

"Such assistance is already being provided to ambulance services in England and, of course, we have had military assistance for other aspects for aspects of the pandemic in the last 18 months."

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We are really sorry for the delay in reaching this patient.

"We are currently facing significant, sustained pressure and extremely high demand on our services which is unfortunately leading to longer response times.

"Our staff are working hard to get to patients as quickly as possible and we continue to work closely with the Scottish Government and other health boards to try and overcome some of the challenges being faced.”