Kerry Whitfield (31) told the Addie of her traumatic experience on December 29 when her daughter, Jordan (13), rushed into the kitchen to tell her something was wrong with her grandfather, Brian Roscoe (65).
“I immediately ran to my dad’s room and saw him lying half off the bed, making hiccough noises and not waking up,” she explains, “that’s when I knew something was wrong.”
She says her father was struggling to breathe and she immediately tried phoning emergency services.
“I told them this was a life and death situation.”
Whitfield’s initial call to 10111 was at 10.20am, which she dialed twice. She then phoned 112 at 11.10am as emergency services had still not arrived by that time.
According to Whitfield the ambulance arrived at 11.52am.
“That’s an hour-and-a-half after I phoned the first time.”
The paramedics declared Roscoe dead on the scene.
Whitfield explains how she phoned the funeral services and they were there within minutes of her call.
“I am very upset with the services of Ekurhuleni.”
Whitfield’s son Zhuan-Lee Krugel (2) died in a car accident in 2007 and her mother Violet Roscoe (56) died of colon cancer in 2013.
Whitfield revealed that her father died of pneumonia and multiple organ failure and says, even if the ambulance was on time, they would not have been able to save her dad.
William Ntladi, spokesman for the Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Services, says immediately after receiving the call, the ambulance crew promptly responded to the address given and they were on scene and initiated patient treatment in no time, adding that unfortunately the patient didn’t respond to the treatment.
“The call was received at 11.33am and arrival on scene was at 11.40am, which means the total travelling time from the reception of the call to the scene was only seven minutes which is within the standard time,” says Ntladi.
“We would like to discourage members of the community from using the 10111 number as it is for police related emergency matters, not medical and fire emergencies.”
Ntladi adds that communities are urged to use the direct call centre number.
The national toll-free emergency number to contact is 10177 or the cell phone number 112.
The Ekurhuleni life threatening emergency line is 011 458 0911
