Young father of two, Dualtagh Donnelly died of blood loss after waiting for more than 20 minutes for a paramedic and 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive in Dundalk, Co.Louth. His family believe he may have survived if medical attention had of arrived sooner.
Dualtagh’s partner, Lindzie, who is pregnant with their third child made the 999 call after Dualtagh cut his arm on a glass panel in the bathroom door of their home in Marion Park, Dundalk in the early hours of Monday, October 26. He was losing blood very quickly after cutting an artery in his arm, according to Lindzie. She told the ambulance control centre that he was losing consciousness.
She rang 999 at 3.06am and Lindzie says it was 24 minutes until the advanced paramedic in the car arrived; he arrived at the same time as the gardai. The HSE say the RRV was there after 23 minutes at 3.29am. Their children Fionn, three, and Caragh, 11 months, were in bed at the time and Lindzie is due to give birth to their third child next month.
She said, “If an ambulance had got to him earlier he would not have lost so much blood. What happened was an absolute disgrace, it was too long for an ambulance to come. It has left me very angry that you wait that long with somebody bleeding to death.”