Man dies after city ambulance fails to arrive
Family member's calls cut off five times.
When family members of handicapped and ill 36-year-old Heinrich Stopforth called the Emergency Management Services (EMS) for an ambulance on 6 December they believed help would arrive soon. They were wrong.
On the day at about 6.30pm Stopforth complained of being short of breath and at just past 7.30pm family members called his uncle, Chris Pattersen to tell him that something was seriously wrong with Stopforth. At 7.38pm Pattersen called the EMS and requested an ambulance.
They said they would send one out. When the ambulance did not arrive, Pattersen again called EMS at 8.05pm, but was cut off. The same happened at 8.08pm and 8.11pm. At 8.13 he finally got through to a supervisor who told him “there were no ambulances available”. Pattersen then rushed to the house at he corner of Balfour and Du Toit Streets in Horison.
Having no other choice he phoned Netcare 911, but on their arrival they declared Stopforth dead.
The EMS spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
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