Maureen Forrester, 91, suffered a serious fall in her Hobsonville home in September. She died last month. Photo / Jason Dorday
Hato Hone St John has made changes to its medical alarm service after the harrowing ordeal of a woman in her 90s who waited almost two hours for an ambulance to be dispatched to her.
As well as making changes to the system, St John has also apologised to the woman’s family.
Maureen Forrester - who was aged 91 and known for being fiercely independent, including living on her own - suffered a serious fall in her home in Hobsonville, West Auckland, in early September.
Her family believe she may have fainted on her way down the stairs and hit her head before falling onto the floor awkwardly - jamming her face and head up against a wall.
She had fractured her neck and was bleeding.
As she lived on her own, her family had previously insisted she signed up to the St John medical alarm service in case of an emergency.
After her fall, the pensioner, who wore the medical alarm as a necklace, pressed the alarm’s button - instantly connecting her to someone who was able to speak with her through it.
The alarm was activated at 4.57pm on Tuesday, September 2. But an ambulance would not be dispatched until almost two hours later - after more alarm activations from Maureen and a phone call from her daughter.
Maureen arrived in an ambulance at North Shore Hospital at 8.54pm - almost four hours after she fell.
Tragically, she died on November 1 after her condition worsened. Her family say they will never know if a quicker ambulance response may have helped their mother’s recovery.
Daughter Alex Jackson-Forrester says the family is upset at how the situation was handled - including that the 111 responder who took their mother’s call categorised the incident as an orange response. That deemed the case urgent, but not immediately life-threatening.
“She’s 91 years old. She communicated that she’d had a fall and she was barely able to speak,” Jackson-Forrester, who has listened to the call recording, said.
“She tried calling back [via the alarm] and they just said: ‘Oh, we can’t take another call because we’ve already registered you.
“Meanwhile, she was like that for two hours and then another hour after I got there. She was on the floor in that position for well over two hours with no pain relief, no help, no anything.”
Maureen had been signed up and paying for the service for about six years, at a cost of about $1000 per year, her daughter said.
The expectation was that an ambulance would be sent out immediately at the press of a button.
“I get it, it might’ve taken half an hour. But there should’ve been an ambulance here urgently. That’s what she was paying for - exactly that situation.”
As part of St John’s medical alarm service, a person who has been deemed the main point of contact is called to alert them that an incident has happened.
In this case, Alex - whose house is just down the road from her mother’s - was listed as the main contact. Her brother, Ashley Forrester, was listed as the secondary contact.
Alex missed St John’s call that day. A voicemail message was left on her phone.
A call was then made to her brother, who lives in Tauranga. However, he was also unavailable. Instead, his wife answered the phone.
The medical alarm team member did not relay to Ashley’s wife the seriousness of the situation - only that they would call back to try to reach her husband.
Just over an hour after their mother called for help via her alarm, another call was made to Alex’s brother, who was told about the incident and that a voicemail message had been left on his sister’s phone.
He then called his sister, who was at their mother’s house in three minutes.
Alex said it was unacceptable that an attempt to call her was made only once.
“One phone call which leaves no trace on my phone and a voice message which I may not listen to until that evening, if then.
“But mainly, they need to be sending texts or leaving a message... so there’s a thing on my phone saying St John ambulance has called.”
The family was also at a loss as to why the caller, who reached Alex’s sister-in-law over the phone, did not relay the severity of the situation to her.
Maureen was admitted to hospital for a number of weeks and had to wear a neck brace. Her condition deteriorated and she died on November 1.
Hato Hone St John general manager for telecare, Nick Coley, said they wanted to apologise to the Forrester family for the distress the experience had caused.
He acknowledged they had received a formal complaint and had reviewed the case.
“As a result, we have updated our process and introduced a dedicated phone number for medical alarm clients’ key contacts.
“This allows them to reach the Telecare team if they are unable to answer a call at the time or if a third party answers the phone on their behalf and they need to return the call.”
Coley maintained that they believe Maureen’s case was triaged correctly as an orange response.
“Having a medical alarm does not change the priority level of a response and the ambulance triage system ensures those whose conditions are life-threatening are attended to first.”
Alex said she was speaking out because many people who signed up with the St John medical alarm service, or adult children who had signed up their parents or grandparents, believed an ambulance call-out was immediate when the alarm was activated.
“I just don’t feel that Mum got the care that she should have. In that situation, she should’ve been able to rely on them,” she said, becoming emotional.
“I don’t want to see it happening again to someone else’s mum.”
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