AMBO CLOSURE WARNING | ‘It will kill people’

THERE’S an alarming human side to the proposed reorganisation of NSW Ambulance.

All local ambulances would be based at the new superstation at Bankstown, co-ordinating with outlying paramedic response points, including one at Fairfield – a downgraded version of the existing station.

Ambulance staff will start and end their day at Bankstown, meaning an extra 14-kilometre trip to the Fairfield CBD.

This added distance is alarming, and outraging, many ambulance staff and patients who say the extra distance could severely threaten response times to emergencies.

Peter Taffa | Picture: Simon Bennett

Peter Taffa | Picture: Simon Bennett

Peter Taffa (pictured), 53, is a purchasing manager for the automotive industry. In 2014 he had a heart attack at Chester Hill, a few minutes from the existing station at Fairfield.

“It happened around midday, I’d been doing some labouring in my brother-in-law’s backyard,” Mr Taffa said. “I wasn’t feeling well and Joe said let’s have a rest and something to eat.

“I didn’t feel like eating. I said to Joe you better ring an ambulance. I feel really off. I had nausea, body cramp, muscle cramp, headache, backache – textbook symptoms of a full heart attack. I couldn’t talk. I was just trying to stay calm and concentrate on my breathing. A lot of chest pain. I was trying to stay calm.

“I was particularly concerned ‘cos my uncle had died of a heart attack the previous year. Someone else in the family had died of one in 1992. Another in 1973. That was all going through my head. I was very concerned it’d escalate. I was scared. And the pain was incredible. Like having an elephant sitting on my chest. The pain defied belief.”

Mr Taffa was fighting back tears as he recounted his story. “I’m sorry. It’s still emotional for me.

“My sister was there too and everyone was trying to calm me down. Time was standing still but it was actually just a few minutes before the ambo turned up.

“I was so grateful to see them.

“The paramedic took one look at me and said ‘We’re going to hospital now!’ They gave me pain relief and put me straight on the monitor.

“I said ‘Tell my wife I love her.’ I was lying in the back of the ambulance and I could see we were going through the underpass on Woodville Drive.

“Only two minutes into the trip everything went black. That was when my heart stopped beating. A few moments later I was aware of what was going on around me but I didn’t regain full consciousness.

“They hit me with a defribillator and I knew exactly what it was. I remember thinking: ‘I’m in big trouble here.’

“I actually heard the heart monitor flatlining. They started CPR and apparently I pushed them off – it’s not a good experience, it’s incredibly uncomfortable. I could feel the crush on my ribs. Then I blacked out again.

“I was jolted with the defribillator again. The electric shock was so strong. I was stunned and I couldn’t open my  mouth to speak.I tried to say: ‘I don’t wanna die.’ I don’t remember actually getting the words out. There was this huge disconnect with my body. But apparently I was saying stuff.

“Then they jolted me a third time.

“At that point they had to stop the ambulance because the processes needed to keep me alive required both the paramedics which meant there was no one to drive the ambulance.

“They called for another ambulance and the second vehicle got there pretty damn quick and we got to Liverpool in record time.

“OK, note this – first, if we’d had to wait any longer for the first ambulance to turn up I would’ve died there and then in Chester Hill.

“Second, if we’d had to wait any longer for the second ambulance I’d have got brain damage – at the least.

“Apparently I was hit with the defribillator eight times in the ambulance and twice in Liverpool emergency. Did you know that cardiac arrest out of hospital has about a 2 per cent survival rate? And the survivors often have brain damage.

“I’m incredibly fortunate. I’ll go to my grave grateful that these guys came to save my life.

“I was in recovery for nine days. The only reason there was a successful outcome is because the response rate was so good. The two treating physicians told me that.

“The decision to move the ambulances to be based at Bankstown defies belief. Incredibly short-sighted. How can this decision possibly benefit the public? It all comes back to that. This decision will kill people.”

Julie Rowles | Picture: Simon Bennett

Julie Rowles | Picture: Simon Bennett

Another with a story to tell is Julie Rowles (pictured), of Bossley Park. “Nine months ago I had a very sick husband. Richard had blood-pressure problems and would collapse. And he had kidney disease, emphysema and cancer. He was very sick. And when you have emphysema you can’t tell the ambulance to take its time.

“Anyway, you know what men are like. They never take themselves to the doctor or hospital. One day I said to Richard: ‘You’re sick! You need to go get help now!’

“I went into another room and rang the ambulance. I said: “I can’t watch you deteriorate like this.’

“They were here in five or 10 minutes and gave him oxygen straight away, put him on a stretcher and wheeled him to the ambulance.

“I remember as he went into the back of the ambulance his head tilted back and his eyes rolled and I felt like my legs had been chopped off. They closed the ambulance doors so I couldn’t see what was happening.

“After 30 minutes they opened the doors and I didn’t know what I’d see. There was the paramedic looking me in the eye and saying ’We’ve managed to resuscitate him.’

“They rang through to the hospital so they could prepare and it was the first time we’d arrived at the hospital and the doors were already flung open ready to take him.

“Doctors were everywhere, working all over him. He lasted five or six hours, but you know what? I thank God for the paramedics – I call them angels. Yes, losing my husband was so bad. I’m grateful he didn’t suffer. But having those angels there was what helped me.

“Look, I was numb. I couldn’t have done anything if I’d been on my own – even if they’d rung to say what to do. I was just numb.

“We desperately need our ambulance station here. In Fairfield. For goodness sake, how long will it take to come from Bankstown?

“I’m someone who’s now looking after elderly parents. My Dad’s nearly 88 and my Mum’s in her 80s. If we need the ambulance how far is Bossley Park from Bankstown, for God’s sake? It really bugs me, you know?

 “And it’s not just me – everybody who dials triple-0 has a story to tell. And we never hear the half of it.”

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