Dad died after being told ambulance would be 18 minutes - but it never came

A dad who was wrongly told an ambulance would be at his home in 18 minutes died from a heart attack after one was never sent.

Call records show Lee Christopher, 35, asked the 999 operator how long paramedics would be “just so I know” as he battled to stay conscious at home while suffering sudden pain in his chest.

Lee and his partner Brooke, lived in Oxted, Surrey, which at 3.19am in June last year would have been less than 20 minutes’ drive from a hospital.

But after calling emergency services, the couple naturally thought help was racing to them and Brooke kept Lee as comfortable as she could as he sat on the living room floor.

For around 25 minutes Lee, whose 12-year-old daughter was asleep upstairs, bravely clung on to consciousness as he waited for help to arrive.

At 3.44am, Brooke phoned 999 again as Lee lost consciousness and began CPR following instructions from the operator.

No ambulance arrived until 46 minutes after Lee had first phoned, and his distraught family have now discovered one was only dispatched when Brooke made the second call.

South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) have admitted to Lee’s family he was given an inaccurate local response time by a call handler who instead quoted a “national average target”. SECAmb said the staff member had been provided with “feedback”.

Lee’s sister Sheri Phillips told the Daily Express: “There’s a chance Lee could have survived if he had been told the correct response time, people can survive heart attacks if they get help in time, he could have made the decision to get to hospital himself and got help.”

“At 3.19am, Lee rang 999 from his phone. He said he was having a heart attack, he was sick and nauseous, he was sat by the back door just trying to find a comfortable position.

“He said to the 999 operator, ‘how long? just so I know’, and they told him that an ambulance would be there within 18 minutes.

“I can imagine him holding on and thinking, ‘it’s ok, they are going to be here any second’, but no ambulance had even been dispatched and he’d been given the wrong response time.

“Brooke’s call was 25 minutes later and no doubt Lee had struggled to stay alert and breathing for that time.”

Eventually three separate medical teams arrived at the couple’s home, with the first getting there by 4.07am. By this point, Brooke had been battling through the nightmare scenario of doing CPR on her loved one for more than 20 minutes.

Sheri, who is trained in CPR as part of her job as cabin crew for an airline, added: “If the ambulance had come in the time they told Lee, they could have been there with equipment when he stopped breathing, or he could have got to the hospital in a car.

“It could have been so different, but the actions of the ambulance service ultimately gave my brother no chance.

“Anyone would know that doing CPR is an awful thing anyway, but to do it on someone you know and love is just horrendous.

“During the call, they said to Brooke is there anyone else in the house that can help, and Brooke said she was by herself and it’s just his 12-year-old daughter who is asleep upstairs.

“They said, ‘could you go and wake her, and get her to help?’, and all I can say is, thank God Brooke didn’t. From that point onwards it was just horrific.”

SECAmb correspondence to Lee’s family shows the service introduced a “call handling guide” in March and February last year where staff were told to give a local “computer-generated average wait time”, but the service admitted they did not provide this information and wrongly gave a national average.

SECAmb said in a statement: “Our sympathies and sincere condolences are with Mr Christopher’s family and friends.

“We work hard to respond to all patients as quickly as possible and we are very sorry we were unable to respond to Mr Christopher within the expected timeframe.”

Speaking about Lee as a person, who worked as a project and operations director at London Fire and Security, his bereaved partner Brooke said he was “someone who would help anyone” and he’d just set up a home gym in the garage.

The family had a holiday booked to Cyprus just three days after Lee’s passing. She said: “He was the best, he was an absolutely brilliant dad, he was sensible, thoughtful and always spoiling us.

“We were homely as a couple and loved spending time together as a family.”

The family have twice been turned down for an inquest into the circumstances surrounding Lee’s death, a decision they think is wrong.

Brooke added: “I think with the response we’ve had from the NHS, that they’ve admitted what was said to him, we cannot believe that there’s been no investigation, it’s just shocking.”

Despite being given over a week to respond, Surrey Coroner's Office did not provide a comment.