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Home / World

Man who left ambulance note: 'I'm disgusted with myself'

Daily Mail
13 Nov, 2017 09:59 PM4 mins to read

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The note Hassan Shabbir left on the ambulance after snapping.

The note Hassan Shabbir left on the ambulance after snapping.

A teaching assistant who left a moaning note on an ambulance telling it not to "block his driveway" while paramedics treated a patient who later died has described his actions as "monstrous".

Hassan Shabbir, 27, said his behaviour was "appalling" and that he was "disgusted with himself" after he had a rush of blood to the head and penned the note onto the ambulance's windscreen in Birmingham.

It read: "You may be saving lives, but don't park your van in a stupid place and block my drive."

The note went viral after a photograph of it was posted on Twitter by paramedic Tasha Starkey who attended the scene.

The ambulance had been forced to double park outside the at the drugs rehab centre as it had no other option and paramedics battled for an hour and a half to save a patient.

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But the 42-year-old resident passed away after being rushed to hospital with "massive internal bleeding".

Speaking after returning from his job as a teaching assistant at St Saviour's Primary School in Birmingham, Shabbir offered an apology to the deceased man's family.

The father, from Small Heath, Birmingham, said: "What I did was monstrous, but I am not a monster. There is no justification for what I did.

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"I am deeply ashamed at my actions, even before I found out the poor man had died.

"Now I know that it makes it even worse, and my heart goes out to his family. I feel truly sorry and I completely regret what I did."

Hassan, who lives three doors down from Livingstone House where the ambulance had parked, claimed he waited patiently behind the ambulance for 20 minutes before losing it and writing the note.

He said he was coming home to switch cars and go to an appointment on Friday and that previous issues with parking on the street caused him snap.

Discover more

Lifestyle

Patient dies after neighbour posted angry note on ambulance

12 Nov 09:14 PM

He said: "I was coming home from work and had to go to an appointment on a different car.

"There was another guy waiting to come out of the drive but we were both blocked by the ambulance for 20 minutes.

"I just snapped and had a rush of blood to the head. I scribbled the note, rushed out and put it on the windscreen. There is no excuse for what I did. It was very bad.

Crew alerted an extremely poorly patient to hospital... minimal on scene time, arrived at hospital to find this note... this patient was TIME-CRITCAL. 😡😡😡 @OFFICIALWMAS pic.twitter.com/uGGAC2TUpI

— Tasha Starkey #HelpUsHelpYou (@wmaststarkey) November 10, 2017

"I knew it was wrong before a friend told me what had happened to the man in it. But parking here is very bad, and I've been blocked in before.

"I've been blocked by the police as well, not knowing where they are or what they are doing. There have been times I've been blocked from going to work. If I could take it back I would."

John Hagans, nurse consultant Livingstone House, a charity and rehabilitation centre for drug and alcohol addicts, told how the organisation was left "disgusted" by the note.

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Hagans said: "We are completely disgusted by the note. Words fail me. This person deserves to be shamed.

"If the person who wrote it had had any idea of what was going on inside, they would not have dared.

"The resident collapsed in the home and was vomiting blood and our nurses and the ambulance crew battled extremely hard to save him."

Hagans said the patient had been at Livingstone for three months and was clean when he died.

He suffered an unrelated medical episode and passed away at Heartlands Hospital on Friday evening.

Sometimes we just don't know what to say. This was the note left on an ambulance today. At the time, the crew were helping a man who was extremely unwell after vomiting blood. They took him on blue lights to hospital where he was in a critical condition. #patientscomefirst 🏥🚑💨 pic.twitter.com/RwCCVmZgrA

— West Midlands Ambulance Service #HelpUsHelpYou (@OFFICIALWMAS) November 10, 2017

At the time, West Midlands Ambulance Service, as well as several paramedics, took to social media to express their dismay at the note.

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The ambulance service tweeted: "Sometimes we just don't know what to say. This was the note left on an ambulance today.

"At the time, the crew were helping a man who was extremely unwell after vomiting blood.

"They took him on blue lights to hospital where he was in a critical condition. #patientscomefirst"

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