Woman dies after ambulance call mocked
PARIS: French authorities have opened an inquiry into the death of a young woman just hours after her distress call to emergency services was mocked by the operator, prompting a public outcry.
Naomi Musenga, 22, dialled France’s emergency dispatch number on Dec 29 last year complaining of strong stomach pains.
In a recording of the three- minute call obtained only recently by her family, Musenga’s voice can barely be heard as saying “it hurts all over” and “I’m going to die ...”
“You’re going to die, certainly, one day just like everyone else,” the female operator responded.
She is also heard mocking Musenga’s complaints with a colleague, before telling the victim to call a doctor for a house visit.
Five hours later Musenga again called the emergency services, which finally dispatched the ambulance that brought her to a hospital in Strasbourg.
But she died shortly after arriving from a heart attack.
Le Monde reported an autopsy revealed that Musenga had suffered multiple organ failure.
French health minister Agnes Buyzn tweeted she was “deeply outraged” and had ordered an inquiry into the “serious failures” by the emergency services.
The circumstances surrounding Musenga’s death have reignited calls for increased funding and resources for France’s health system.
“In 1988, eight million people went to hospital emergency rooms each year. Today’s it’s 21 million,” Patrick Pelloux, head of the French association of emergency doctors, told Le Parisien.
“At the same time, calls to emergency services have tripled,” which have effectively reduced them to “call centres”, he said.
The government is already grappling with huge strains on the health system, with hospital doctors denouncing for weeks a shortage of beds that means many patients are forced to sleep on gurneys in hallways.
Nurses and other workers have also been protesting in recent weeks against overcrowding and staff shortages. – AFP