Play highlights stark reality after pensioner ‘dies’ on local street

Play highlights stark reality after pensioner ‘dies’ on local street

26 July 2017

AN elderly man “died” after sustaining a fatal heart attack outside the St Patrick Centre in Downpatrick last Friday afternoon.

The horror unfolded just after 1pm and while a young nurse and doctor rushed to resuscitate him and summon an emergency ambulance, there was nothing they could do to help the pensioner.

People in nearby businesses and shoppers looked on horrified as a white cloth was delicately placed over the dead man’s face but within seconds of this happening, he stood up to assure people he was fine.

What people had in fact witnessed was a street theatre production by members of the Patrician Youth Centre designed to highlight the need for enhanced emergency ambulance cover across the district. Last Friday’s event welcomed by the Down Community Health Committee and local politicians.

In addition to the faked heart attack, a young boy who was playing football fell and badly damaged his knee and the doctor who treated him warned that if there was a delay in the ambulance arriving he could lose his leg.

The production comes after a number of incidents over recent months when several patients experienced a delay in being treated by paramedics. In one case, a patient had to wait 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

Currently, local ambulance crews which take patients to Belfast are often asked to respond to emergencies in the city, delaying their return to the district which has an impact on emergency cover. 

The Ambulance Service said it is determined to improve response times in rural areas as the many young people from the Patrician demanded fair and equitable emergency ambulance provision across the district.

They say emergency ambulance cover is critical and when people take ill it is important the urgent help they require is available. The teenagers said they wanted to highlight the need for cover, with the powerful message from last weekend’s event wholeheartedly endorsed by health campaigners.

Oisin O’Hare, Nathan Botsford, 

Eamon O’Hare, Stephen Galbraith, Kirsty Marie Botsford and Shaun McCabe took part in the poignant mini play. Ironically, within seconds of the production starting, an ambulance drove past on its way to a real medical emergency.

The serious message of adequate ambulance emergency cover was not lost on the people who stopped to watch the teenagers from the Patrician, with artistic director, Brian Mullan, explaining the production was all the teenagers’ idea.

He explained: “We have had a number of occasions over the past few months when young people who hurt or injured themselves needed an ambulance and had to wait over two hours for one to arrive. It is not acceptable in a country the size of Northern Ireland to wait that length of time.

“The argument we have is that we were told when 24-hour A&E provision at the Downe Hospital was being removed that there would be adequate ambulance cover. There just hasn’t been and there is nowhere in Northern Ireland where you can’t drive in two-and-a-half hours so it is crazy you have to wait an an area so small for ambulance.”

Brian confirmed that the idea to stage the street theatre production came from the young people as they feel passionately about this particular issue.

He continued: “This is something they very much wanted to do. What they are going to perform today is their idea and their words. It is a very short piece which gives a couple of examples of the worst that can happen when there is no ambulance provision.”

Brian said the production was about highlighting what can happen when people injure themselves and they cannot be treated by paramedics as soon as possible and whisked to hospital. He said when 24-hour service provision at the Downpatrick hospital was reduced, a promise was made that ambulance provision would be available.

He added: “We asked the young people was there something they wanted to highlight and this is the issue they came back to us with. It is very important to them and through conversations with them we came up with the idea for the street theatre production to highlight the issue to as many people as possible.”