Well this is a different type of complaint

Following on from my thread about the NHS, this little episode took it to another level at the weekend.

My Mother in Law lives in independent living accomodation. For those of you who are unaware, these are privately owned (very comfortable) flats where you have to be aged 55 or above to be abe to live there, and whilst you are totally independent, there are facilities in built to make life easier for example if someone collapses the intercom can be activated remotely and access obtained without the need for a key (still very secure) as an example.

Anyway, on Friday one of the residents passed away. He was well into his 80's, quite frail and had been suffering from some illness over the past few weeks.

The resident was last seen at around 11pm the previous evening heading for his flat from the community area.

He had a carer who arrived to see him at around 9am Friday morning only to find him sat at his dining room table dead.

He had obviously been dead for a while as Rigor Mortis had set in and he still had the waxy type of complexion that is unique to a dead body, so being a nurse of about 20+ years standing, the carer just to make sure checked for a pulse and breathing and then dialed 101 to notify the Police of a sudden death. This is not a 999 call requirement.

Police said they would get someone out as they are required to do, but in the meantime, Ambulance service called (having been passed the details by the Police).

Ambulance control operator asked what had happened and the carer explained that the resident had passed away. She was asked how she knew so she explained about hernursing background yardy yardy ya. In other words she was suitably qualified to know if someone had died or not.

Ambulance operator then told the carer to commence CPR.....

So she explained that the deceased was in Rigor, he had been dead for some time but the operator insisted (seems like they were reading from a script) and told the carer that she was not qualified to determine if someone was dead or not and that she was legaly obliged to perform CPR until such time as her Paramedic colleagues arrived.

By this time carer was fuming and after a few more minutes of trying to explain she ended up putting the phone down.

10 minutes later, Ambulance arrived on lights and sirens bowled into the flat and said words along the lines of "where the stiff then" without checking to ask who was present or showing any courtesy to those present.

They lifted the deceased onto the floor and lifted his shirt to confirm that life was extinct and then left him on the floow with his legs raised shirt raised and afforded him (albeit he was dead and probably would not have cared) a complete lack of dignity.

Police arrived a short while later who apparently were brilliant.

Then the Paramedics left without so much as a by your leave (which is no big deal) but then the undertakers arrived and again also walked in without so much as a the courtesy of a "Hello", or a "Sorry for your loss", they just ignored everyone, went straight to the body, broke or cracked his legs in order to get him into the body bag.

Now bearing in mind that this took place in a first floor flat, the undertakers were asked if they could take the body down the back lift as there were quite a few old people who...If they saw a body being removed might themselves have an early coronary.

"No" says the undertakers, we go out the way we came in, using the main lift.

The main lift fits 3 people maximum. The body in the body bag was stood up as they went down in the lift and then had to manhandle the body out to their van.

As the lift doors opened, there were a couple of people awaiting for the lift who had the shock of their lives.

I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the account I was given as there was nothing to be gained, but I was surprised because usually Ambulance service and undertakers are amongst the most professional body of people I have ever encountered in my professional career.

A complaint is being made to both the Ambulance service and the Undertakers (supported by the Police in attendance who were also disgusted by their behaviour of both). It will be interesting to see what they have to say.

That is shockingly insensitive, coming from an FLO background I can't imagine being so blasé.

That is shockingly insensitive, coming from an FLO background I can't imagine being so blasé.

I agree with you.

It is the first time in over 40 years of dealing with bereavement that I have ever come across such (shall we say) surprising behaviour, and because it has been corroborated nobody can make an accusation of exageration or blowing it out of proprtion.

That is really bad!

I hope they're brought to book

I am stunned, I never had anything like that during my 27 years. Paramedics and undertakers were always excellent. However......

We (two police, two undertakers) did have to be creative once, when removing a heavy body from a hotel room that was up a tiny flight of stairs in a turret (old Victorian seaside hotel). The lady had died during a holiday with her friend. We managed, just, to get the shell (a reusable coffin) up and into the room, but there was no way we were going to be able to get it with the body inside back down, it was just too heavy and we were going to damage the bannisters. So we removed the body in the shell from the room, to make it look like that was how she was being transported. Then we took the body out of the shell, covered it in a blanket, carried it down the stairs to a cupboard where an undertaker remained on guard. Then we went back, got the shell and took that to the cupboard and put the body back in. The shell had to be held upright to get it into the lift. So, an undertaker went down on his own to the ground floor, to stand guard and make sure no one was about. We then followed and finally, once on the ground floor, the body was removed by the four of us carrying the shell, a corner each.

...seems like they were reading from a script...

My sister works on these lines and yes, they pretty much read a script in these circumstances.

For everything else they use a triage programme - similar to the one that can be found on the NHS website.

The operators are working from a system called AMPDS or similar, they are not trained clinicians, I find it really hard to believe that registered Paramedics would be so insensitive and unprofessional ..... if they were then those aggrieved can report them directly to their registering body for investigation, reporting mechanism is easily accessible online

I have a story to tell about things that are just wrong!

It has a tenuous link to this thread

My Dad lived in a council flat, he was on various disability benefits,

when he died one afternoon I notified the council the next morning,

because he died on the "wrong" day I had to pay a fortnight's rent,

13 days of which he was dead!

Because of his disabilities he paid reduced rent.

because he was dead I had to pay the full un-discounted rate!

I obviously argued this! I got no sympathy whatsoever! what I did get was the threat

of legal action if I didn't pay immediately!

I had the funeral to organise/pay for etc.etc. so I just paid.

It still grips my shit today! It's just wrong!

The operators are working from a system called AMPDS or similar, they are not trained clinicians, I find it really hard to believe that registered Paramedics would be so insensitive and unprofessional ..... if they were then those aggrieved can report them directly to their registering body for investigation, reporting mechanism is easily accessible online

The complaint has been made and the carer and the family has already been notified that an investigation will be conducted. The police who attended have already corroborated the account.

Just as you get unprofessional Police Officers, you will get unprofessional Ambulance crews, Firemen and women, Nurses, even inthe Military you get bad apples, so it in my opinion comes as no surprise at all that once in a while a baddun slip through the net.

I have a story to tell about things that are just wrong!

It has a tenuous link to this thread

My Dad lived in a council flat, he was on various disability benefits,

when he died one afternoon I notified the council the next morning,

because he died on the "wrong" day I had to pay a fortnight's rent,

13 days of which he was dead!

Because of his disabilities he paid reduced rent.

because he was dead I had to pay the full un-discounted rate!

I obviously argued this! I got no sympathy whatsoever! what I did get was the threat

of legal action if I didn't pay immediately!

I had the funeral to organise/pay for etc.etc. so I just paid.

It still grips my shit today! It's just wrong!

When my Mother died, a couple of weeks after her funeral, my father got a letter from the local council addressed to my mother, and I promise this is true. We have kept the letter to this day

It read

"Dear Mrs Deceased.

We were sorry to hear of your recent death"

It then went on about the council tax reduction or whatever, but at the end of the letter it finishes off by saying

"Please ensure that this matter is passed onto your next of kin for their immediate attention"

I phones said council and asked then what the hell they were up to?

Apparently they used a standard proforma letter and then filled in the specific sections, but whoever had done this letter had screwed up big time. They were very embarrased and very apologetic

I laught about it now, but at the time

I've had both good and bad experiences.

When i collapsed at work 2 ambulances turned up in a few minutes and the amount of tests/check carried out was amazing. They even insisted i went to A&E even though it seems i had only fainted but they still would not take any chances.

When my next door neighbour many years ago collapsed at my front door in absolute agony the ambulance crew could not give a toss. They did not even blue or two to my address nor did they seem to be in any hurry to get to my house which was quite a walk from the ambulance. Even while she was on the floor screaming in agony they really did not seem bothered. Later turns out my neighbours intestines were minutes from exploding which could have lead to her death.

The Met Police on the other hand, not really had any good experiences with them.

I have a story to tell about things that are just wrong!

It has a tenuous link to this thread

My Dad lived in a council flat, he was on various disability benefits,

when he died one afternoon I notified the council the next morning,

because he died on the "wrong" day I had to pay a fortnight's rent,

13 days of which he was dead!

Because of his disabilities he paid reduced rent.

because he was dead I had to pay the full un-discounted rate!

I obviously argued this! I got no sympathy whatsoever! what I did get was the threat

of legal action if I didn't pay immediately!

I had the funeral to organise/pay for etc.etc. so I just paid.

It still grips my shit today! It's just wrong!

I gave you thumbs up for that post, which is really a thumbs down as that is outrageous.

My experience of ambulance/paramedics, fire brigade and coast guard (the often forgotten emergency service) has been universally good. The police on the other hand ............