Joe Duggan (Reporter)
THOUSANDS of angry Costa Del Sol residents are demanding 24-hour ambulance cover after the deaths of a three-year-old girl and a man.
The Manilva group’s Facebook page ‘En El Paraiso Sin Ambulancia’ (In Paradise Without An Ambulance) has attracted over 2,500 people and a Change.Org petition has been launched.
The child died two weeks ago after waiting more than 20 minutes for an ambulance
Meanwhile, in a separate incident just days later a man died in a park after an ambulance failed to arrive.
The group is calling on the Junta to establish permanent 24-hour emergency care in the Manilva area, with at least one ambulance and the improvement of current equipment.
Currently, Manilva shares an ambulance service with Estepona town hall.
“The death of this child is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said the group’s founder María Victoria Sequeiro.
“There are 15,000 people on the city census, but in summer that increases to 40,000.
“There is no emergency service at the weekends in Sabinillas because the doctor that is there needs to have a break.”
The group say the Junta had promised them a 24-hour service five years ago.
The same will be true for Cancelada, Bel Air, Nenamara, El Pilar, Atalaya and other urbanizations at the eastern border of Estepona, being as far away from Estepona townhall as Manilva at the western border.
This is a great cause and is of course worth campaigning for. However I feel it’s a long term goal and the way things are there is likely to be more avoidable tragedies before any new ambulances are deployed…
In tandem and more immediately, a champagne to train local shop keepers in basic first aid and CPR, as well as the acquisition of automatic public Defibrulators is a cheaper and very worthwhile intermediate fix. It will also continue to improve life expectancy even when and if the ambulances are deployed.
The detail is clearly personal but in the case of the young girl you refer to, it’s unlikely the ambulance delay attributed to her death. There are some cases where natures way is simply too cruel to comprehend.
In most cases, immediate first aid or CPR where appropriate, is enough to bridge the gap until paramedics arrive. In the case of the little girl this immediate help was not available until my wife and I and an off duty paramedic, passing by, identified the gravity of her condition and started CPR. We carried out CPR for over 20 mins until the Ambulance arrived. We were unfortunately too late to make any difference to this tragic incident.
Even if this poor young girl would have received immediate intervention, I can’t say the outcome would have been any different. What I am saying is it wouldn’t have done any harm but the basic knowledge and response were simply not available.
To summarise – This was a complicated scenario but the surface basics can be taken as perspective in the champagne for more ambulances. Yes the service needs to be improved but please also raise awareness for the requirement of some basic local first response.
Thank you and good luck.
Given the wide spread of population, perhaps an air-ambulance (helicopter) would make more sense?
Expensive, yes. But what price human life? The EU could make a difference here. Lots of useless lolly has been dished out – airports, roads etc. So now, Spain could look more responsible for a change.