Horror Story of Refusal to take Dying Student to Hospital.

The actual News Story is as reported by the Daily Mail Reporter
and was last updated at 1:46 PM on 26th January 2011.

Two ambulance workers have been removed from frontline duties after complaints that they refused to take a dying student to hospital.

Sarah Mulega, 21, was discovered collapsed in her bedroom in Barking, Essex, by her landlady, Chinwe Moneke, who called for an ambulance.

Miss Mulega suffered from sickle cell anaemia, a genetic blood condition - where some of the red blood cells are misshaped and can restrict blood flow causing painful episodes called crisis, which can be deadly.

Collapsed:

Sarah Mulega's cause of death has not yet been established. But when paramedics arrived more than half an hour later they allegedly refused to take the dying student to hospital because she had soiled herself. She died just hours later.

Two members of London Ambulance Service have been taken away from frontline duties while the allegations are investigated.

Miss Mulega's cousin, Thomas Chisanga, 33, said: 'The people who were there to help her let her down in the last hour.

'We simply don't want it to happen to anyone else.

'It's so painful. I have so much anger towards them.'

The 21-year-old worked part time as a carer to support herself while she studied business management.

Her landlady said she discovered Miss Mulega collapsed in her bedroom on January 9 and rang for an ambulance at about 4.15pm. She said she made a second call at about 4.30pm to say her condition was getting worse and a third call at 4.45pm to say she thought her tenant was having a sickle cell crisis.

An ambulance arrived at the home in Barking at about 4.50pm and Ms Moneke claims the ambulance workers refused to take her to hospital. She said: 'They did not check Sarah's temperature nor heartbeat. In fact they did not touch her at all.'

The stunned landlady said she heard one of the paramedics tell the dying student 'If you want to be taken to hospital, then get up so we can take you'.

She believes the medics refused to touch the dying student because she had soiled herself.

The landlady said she cleaned her up until Miss Mulega's sister arrived and by then the student was unresponsive so she called a second ambulance. She added: 'We were panicking and crying.' A second ambulance came to the house and took Miss Mulega to hospital but she died there later the same evening. An inquest has opened into her death but a cause of death has not yet been established.

A spokesman for London Ambulance Service said: 'We are looking into what happened and have received a complaint about the incident.

'In the meantime the first two members of staff who attended have been taken off frontline duties pending the outcome of this investigation. We would like to offer our condolences to the patient's family and we will

share the findings of our investigation with them as soon as we can.'

There are some that are stating that race played a part in this matter in that the ambulance workers did not want to transport the young lady, Sarah, because she is of ethnic heritage.  However, the reports point more to the likelihood that these two ambulance drivers are rejects of society with no empathy or caring for anyone or anything. This appears to be cold-blooded negligence. One would wonder what these workers think that they are issued gloves for. 

Extremely  touching and upsetting is the fact that Sarah worked part time as a carer.  She provided care for others, and yet when she needed care the most, from the people whose job duties require that they provide care, she was betrayed and deprived of care.

There are so many questions that should be answered both to the family of this dead young lady, as well as to the general public. One such question is when did ambulance workers get the authority to determine who gets transported to the hospital or not?  What medical training did they receive to base such determinations on?  If they conversed with the young lady who apparently lost  her life due to their negligence, and demanded that she get up so they would take her to the hospital, and the lady did not do so; why would it not occur to them that as sick as she obviously was, the lady could not get up?

Despite the cruelty, lack of empathy, and the apparent disregard for their carrying out their duties shown by these two ambulance workers, we still must not lose our hope for humane actions from humans.  Sarah's landlady along with her actions demonstrates a wealth of kindness, consideration, sympathy and caring.  There must be an  appreciation for the decency and kindness of the landlady who repeatedly called for an ambulance, and once she realized that the ambulance workers would not touch the soiled lady, she herself cleaned Sarah with the hope that the workers would transport Sarah to the hospital.  The landlady went above and beyond her responsibility, and indeed showed true heartfelt acts of kindness. The landlady and Sarah's sister were both crying and panicking, and this alone demonstrates that despite the actions of the ambulance workers, kindness, empathy, and love are still alive in some human beings.  Hopefully, we will all take away something positive from this very sad story.